


The Gunman

by bedb



Category: Alternate Universe - Fandom, The Force Awakens - Fandom, The Last Jedi, star wars AU - Fandom
Genre: 'Kylo needs to let his past die, AU Western. Old West Racism, Can Rey save Kylo, Captivity, F/M, Hux is his foreman, Kylo Ren is a half Cheyenne gun slinger working for Major Snoke, Major Snoke is British, Maz is Finn's grandmother, Poe Dameron is a Texas Kieno, Slow Burn, range war is brewing, the last days of the British cattle barons, yes there will be lust in the dust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-06-09 20:29:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15275580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bedb/pseuds/bedb
Summary: Han Solo has been killed on Major Snoke's orders. His half Cheyenne son works for Snoke as a hired gun. Rey and Chewie have their sights set on killing Snoke.I does not go the way they think it will.





	1. The First Order Ranch

**Author's Note:**

> Blood is giving me fits (the Kylo Ren post EPIX story...and this one wanted to be written. It won't be a long one, but I'm having fun doing it)

Rey looked up at the hard faced men around her. Not a pleasant face in the bunch, but then she didn’t expect it. These men all rode for Major Snoke who ruled the high mountain valley with an iron fist. His foreman Hux, a Brit, reminded her of a fox or maybe a coyote. She knew him by reputation. 

“Old man Solo’s scavenger,” Hux said distastefully and turned his gaze towards the hairy mountain man who followed her. “There’s no beaver left in the valley. Your kind hunted them out years ago.”

“We’re not after beaver,” the big man replied, his voice barely above a growl.

“Ah, what then would bring you here?” Hux asked, playing them along.

“I mean to kill Major Snoke for ordering the death of Han Solo,” Rey spoke up defiantly.

There were some dark chuckles from the men with Hux. “Really?” the red haired foreman asked in disbelief. “You mean to do this?” he mocked her.

“I mean to,” Rey said without hesitation although she was beginning to think that maybe her initial plan was not a good one. And she had dragged poor Chewie into this. They were going to die right where they stood.

Hux smiled. “Take her rifle and anything he might have on him,” he said and reined his big red sorrel around. I’m sure the Major can’t wait to meet this chit.” One of the men took her Henry rifle while another tied her and Chewie’s hands behind their backs and then secured ropes around them. “Come along now, no doddling,” Hux said and urged his horse forward.

Rey and Chewie walked for miles, stumbling along when the trail got rough, but as they were going ‘down hill’ and not up, it was easier going. Heaven help them when they reached the floor of the valley. She half expected to see the legendary First Order Ranch at any moment spreading out before them like a scar upon the land. And then there it was. But one could hardly call it a scar. It was majestic and beautiful. a western palace built of ancient cedars and red granite slabs. Hux led them towards it without stopping to rest. When they reached the main yard, he stopped by a horse trough. 

Desperate for water Rey and Chewie stole mouthfuls from the trough. No one tried to stop them, although Hux threw a disgusted look at them before dismounting and passing the reins of his horse to one of the cowboys, if you could call them that. “Keep them here,” he said and entered the grand house through a side door.

After a few minutes the door opened again and Hux stepped back outside in front of a withered old man. She briefly glimpsed a third man, but he who chose to stay in the shadows watching. “So this is the scavenger who wants to kill me,” Major Snoke remarked sarcastically. “Lock them in the corn crib, I don’t want the wolves to get them.”

Rey was not afraid of four legged wolves. But she was hungry and wondered how hard it would be to eat dry corn. She tried to see the man in the shadows but he didn’t want to be seen. Too tired to fight or argue, she and Chewie were locked in a nearly empty crib, the native wood slats were opened enough for her to see through them. To keep her mind active and to not give into despair, she looked at the fine horses in the corral. One of them was a big black with a long mane and tail. Whoever owned him must have been an important man.

 

“Where did you find them?” the major asked as he and the two men with him returned to his office.

“On the Blue Ridge,” Hux replied. “I confess I was surprised to see Old Man Chewie with her.”

“Who is she?” Snoke asked and took a seat at his desk. Hux stood in front of it, while Kylo Ren occupied one of the sitting chairs.

“Some dirty little scavenger Han Solo must have picked up along the way. She has her sights set on killing you. What do you want to do with her?”

“Women are rare in these parts. Maybe I’ll give her to someone to tame,” Snoke replied and reached for his pipe.

“Give her to me,” Kylo spoke up.

Snoke looked surprised while Hux twisted his face in distaste. “You want her?”

“Yes.” 

“You won’t get to spend much time with her, what with you leaving tomorrow for a week.”

“I’ll be back. Maz can clean her up while I’m gone.”

“Is that what you really want?”

“Yes.”

“All right, but let’s leave the breaking in until you get back. I don’t want a hysterical woman on my hands while you are gone.” 

“No one touches her while I’m away.”

“I’ll pass word you’ll shoot any man who does.” 

 

After supper, Kylo went into the kitchen to get some food for their ‘guests’. Hux, on his way out, stopped and said, “You may be wasting your time.”

“It’s my time to waste,” Kylo replied as Maz dished food on to two large tin plates.

“White women are funny,” Hux continued. “They’ve been known to kill themselves over the very thought of a savage touching them.”

The words stung Kylo like a whip, but he refused to let Hux see it. Maz placing some hot water cornbread on the plates hated Hux but feared Kylo’s temper. Tonight he kept it under control. “Get the door?” the gunman asked in a guarded voice. If Hux said one more word he would shoot him.

Maz opened the door and held it.

 

It was nearly dark and Rey was getting light headed from hunger. Hearing a door open she rolled on her side and gazed through the slats.

“Kylo Ren himself,” Chewie said more to himself than Rey.

“Who’s that?” 

“The Major’s hired gun. Looks like he’s bringing us some supper.” Chewie frowned. “Be careful around him, girl. He’s a dangerous man, and the only reason he’d be dropping food off personally is that he’s taken an interest in you.”

They both moved back from the door. Ren was a tall man with long black hair, a sign in the high country of Native American blood, probably Cheyenne.” There was an armed guard with him, but the way he wore his guns low indicated he was a gunman, breed or not. “Two plates, two spoons,” he said and handed one of the tin plates to Rey. Chewies reached for the other. Looking back at his escort Ren said, “Get them some water.”

Chewie ate in silence, his eyes never leaving Ren, who returned the stare. Rey began to think there was history between them. And then he fixed that black gaze on her.  
Remembering what Chewie said, she asked, “Do you plan on raping me?”

He grinned and folded his arms across his broad chest, leaning against the door jam while he waited for them to finish. “I might,” he said, “after you wash the dirt off.”

“Thank God for dirt then,” she retorted.

“Hux had Han Solo murdered,” Chewie finally said. “I saw it with my own eyes.”

“I know,” Ren said and took the pot and spoons from Rey. There was a moment when their eyes locked. And it chilled her to the bone. He didn’t say anything but secured the door behind him. She then watched as the gunman took the implements back into the house. Turning to Chewie she asked, “What was that about?”

“Kylo Ren is Han Solo’s half breed son. His mother was a Cheyenne princess.”

Rey sat back in stunned silence. Old Han had a half breed son? “I didn’t know.”

“Han never talked about it. Blamed himself for introducing the boy to the major.”

After a cold restless night, Rey awoke to a wizened Black woman delivering their breakfast. In her youth she must have been a beautiful woman. “I’m Maz,” she said and slipped the two tin plates laden with food through the slats. Two cups of unsweetened coffee followed. As hungry as she was, Rey would have eaten a boiled porcupine if it had been offered. “My grandson Finn works in the blacksmith shop, if you see him and need anything, you can tell him and he will tell me.” She glanced back at the white man with her. “No need talkin’ to these oafs. They only do what the major tells them to do.”

“As should you,” he retorted.

Maz scowled at him but said nothing to him. “I’ll come back later for the plates.”

She should have just stayed. Rey and Chewie were finished eating in short order. With nothing else to do, they lay back among the shucks and stared at the sky through the cracks overhead. If it ever rained they would be drenched. Hux was their next visitor.

“Well it appears you are moving indoors,” he said and opened the crib door. “Both of you.” 

“Why?” Rey demanded.

“Civilized people don’t ask why,” Hux responded haughtily “Come along, I don’t have all day.” 

Rey glanced back at Chewie who said, “Go along, girl, it’ll be all right for now.”

“Really?” Hux remarked in horror. “It’ll take a dozen baths before anyone wants to touch you, I assure you. Besides, Ren has taken an interest in you.”

Neither Rey nor Chewie said anything while they were being escorted into the kitchen where a tub of hot water waited for Rey. Chewie was shown to a servant’s room and locked in. 

“I don’t want a bath,” Rey told Maz with fierce determination.

“Do it for me then,” Maz said and poured them cups of hot tea. “Do you like sugar or cream?”

Rey had never had tea with or without sugar ever. “I don’t know,” she said.

“Cream and sugar it is then. And I mean it, if you won’t take the bath for yourself, do it for me,” she said and handed her the fine porcelain cup with a scene out of China, or what she imagined was China. Rey tasted it and smiled. “Tea is so much more civilized,” Maz said with a smile.

“I hear that a lot,” Rey said and started to undress.

“The major says it a lot. He wants to bring civilization to the wilderness, build an empire on cattle and fine horses.”

“There’s a lot to civilization, if this is it,” Rey said and stepped into the warm water. It was wonderful. Maz’ kitchen was huge with canisters lining the counter tops and a first class wood stove. There was even an icebox. Remembering what Hux said, she looked up at Maz who was working some soap into a wet rag, and asked, “Are they going to hurt me?”

“If they were going to throw you to the animals, they already would have,” she said in hopes of reassuring the girl.

Maz pulled up a stool and took the soap to Rey’s back. “Hux said Kylo Ren was interested in me. Do you think he means to…rape me?”

“Women are so rare around here that I’ve never seen him with one,” Maz confessed, “but the other men are afraid of him. That’s a good thing I suppose.”

“Why’s that?”

“No one will touch you so long as he’s interested.”

“But I’m not interested in him. He’s a murderer. His own father was slaughtered by Snoke’s men and he’s done nothing about it.” The very thought of him touching her was repugnant.

“Best you keep those thoughts to yourself,” Maz cautioned her. “Kylo can be a gentleman, but I’ve seen him shoot men. There’s a lot of anger in him.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want him.”

“Maybe you got no choice, or if you do, the alternative is worse. A pretty little white girl like you will bring a lot of money in Billings or Helena.”

“They wouldn’t!”

“They could. Now act like you got good sense. Besides Kylo rode out this morning on some business. He won’t be back for a couple of days. ”

“Then why all this scrubbing up?”

“The major wants you to be his guest,” Maz said and attacked her hair with the soap. “You’ve got free run of the place, as long as you do it on foot. Just don’t wander too far, the grizzlies are moving down from the mountains and bothering the cattle. Wouldn’t want anyone to mistake you for a griz.”

“What about Chewie?”

“Don’t know nothing about the mountain man.”

Rey was given a simple dress to wear, the first she’d ever put on, and looking at herself in the mirror, she couldn’t believe what she saw. There really was a pretty girl under all the dirt and bear grease.

“Now don’t go getting dirty before supper. You’ll be eating with the major,” Maz concluded and tied Rey’s hair back with a red ribbon.

“I’m free to go?” Rey asked suspiciously.

“As a bird. Just don’t go getting dirty. I mean it.”

Rey looked around a moment and then headed back outside. She wanted to test this new freedom. The first place she went was to the corral where the ranch horses grazed on bales of hay. They were beautiful leggy animals, not like the tough little N’din ponies that she was used to. The black she had notice earlier was not there.

“They’re all mostly Thoroughbreds,” a voice spoke up behind her. Turning, she found her gazing into the handsome smiling face of a man who looked like he might be half N’din or Mexican.

“They’re beautiful,” she said and returned the grin. A second man appeared from the shadows, a young Black man. Maz’ grandson.

“I was looking for the black one, but he’s not here,” she admitted.

“Kylo Ren’s stallion,” the handsome Mexican replied. “I’m Poe, and this is Finn. You are?”

“Rey.”

“Pleased to meet you Rey.”

Rey eased over to get out of the sun, not that it was all that bad. The valley was beginning to show signs of fall. “You talk funny. Kind of Southern, I guess but something else.”

“That is because I’m a Kieno,” Poe answered good naturedly and went back to work on the wagon wheel.

“I don’t know what that is.” 

“I was born on the King’s Ranch in Texas. We are Kienos, King’s men.”

“Texas is a long way from here.”

“Definitely,” he agreed. “But I was offered a job and took it.” He looked around and made a face. “It’s not so bad. Doesn’t get as hot up here as South Texas.”  
“Yeah, but it freezes in the winter,” Finn countered.

“Where are you from?” Rey asked and handsome young Black man.

“Jamaica. How I got here is a long….”

“And boring,” Poe threw in with a grin.

“Interesting,” Finn corrected him, “story.”

Rey realized then that she had made two new friends. Remembering Maz’ warning, she did not jump in and help the way she wanted. Finn and Poe agreed. If she was going to eat with the major, she needed to stay clean.

When supper came Maz made her wash her hands and face before going to the dining room where the Major, Hux, and several other men waited for her. All but Hux seemed pleased with her presence. Hux just looked annoyed. There was a place setting for someone not present, Kylo Ren. Rey was seated be side that setting. Finn, wearing a white jacket, would wait on them.

Rey had never eaten at a fancy table before and looked to Finn for guidance. There were polite introductions and then everyone got down to the business of eating. Two of the men were from Billings. The Major wanted to buy something from them at a price below market value. In return he would sell them beef at cost. This she gathered just by listening. 

At the end of supper, which she got through without spilling any food on her clothes, Snoke leaned back in his ornate longhorn chair and pulled a cigar out of his vest pocket. “Finn, tell your grandmother, she exceeded herself tonight.”

“Thank-you, sir. I will tell her,” Finn replied and started gathering the plates. Rey smiled at him and got a wink in return.

The men all lit up smokes while she wondered as to her next move. Should she go into the kitchen and help Maz and Finn with the dishes? Sounded fair to her. “If you gents don’t mind,” she began and stood up, “I’m gonna go into the kitchen and help with the dishes.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Snoke told her.

“I don’t mind, really,” she said and hurried away before anyone stopped her.

Maz and Finn were surprised when she showed up and offered to help with the dishes. Poe and Chewie, having his supper at the worktable, were equally surprised. Finn glanced at his grandmother who shrugged her shoulders. Finn gave Rey the drying towel.

The conversation turned to horses and calves and whether or not the winter was going to be real cold based on how soon the geese came down. The highbred cattle that Major Snoke was breeding were prone to the chill so a bad winter would mean a high kill count.

“I don’t know much about cows,” Rey admitted as she dried a platter, “but it would seem he’d raise cows that don’t get the chill.”

Poe, something of an expert on cows from Texas, picked at a chicken bone and said, “Cows are like people. Some can take it some can’t. Down in Texas we are experimenting with Indian humped cattle. They have a high tolerance to heat without being all stringy like the old Longhorns.”

“Cows is cows to me,” Chewie said and smiled at Maz who placed a dish of peach cobbler in front of him. “I fear I may have to run off with you,” he said before digging into the pie.”

“Can’t run off with a willing woman,” Maz retorted flirtatiously.

Chewie almost giggled as he consumed the pie. Maz gave him a second helping. For a little while Rey found herself enjoying the camaraderie in the kitchen. She had more in common with them than the men in the dining room or the missing gunfighter.

“When will Kylo Ren be back?” she asked curiously, her question dampening the mood considerably.

“In a couple of days,” Maz answered. “When he rides out, he usually gone a couple of days.”

Rey nodded. Glancing back at Chewie, she said, “Maybe we can slip away before he returns.”

The joviality in the kitchen died. Maz was the one who spoke up. “You leave, they will hunt you down and kill you…maybe worse. And if we keep it a secret, they will punish us too.”

Finn, more scared than the others, said, “Rey, please don’t do it. We’ve seen what happens to people who try to leave without permission.”

Rey stopped drying the platter and put it in the cupboard. She didn’t want to get anyone hurt, but this gentle captivity was unbearable. “I won’t try it,” she decided.

“Good,” Maz replied and took an iron skillet off the stove and wiped it down with a damp rag. “Don’t put skillets in the water. It will ruin them.”

Poe grinned and stood up. “Time to turn in.”

“Good night, boy,” Chewie said and smiled at the young Kieno.

Poe gave a Maz a peck on the cheek and as an afterthought gave Rey one as well. The girl smiled and watched the handsome blacksmith leave by the backdoor. Maz kept her thoughts to herself this time, but if the girl was being kept around for Kylo Ren, she was playing with fire flirting with other men. 

 

Rey was amazed at the amount of freedom she had during the day, although she did notice a tower towards the tall trees where a guard watched. If she did try to get away, he would see it and notify the others. Maybe even take matters into his own hands. Who knew? 

Hanging out with Finn and Poe became a part of her routine. Chewie spent most of his time in the kitchen helping Maz. It could have gone on this way indefinitely, but one day the man on the black horse returned. He rode slowly around the side of the house and was watching them before anyone realized he was there. Poe acted first. “Kylo! Let me take your horse.”

Kylo did not look friendly as he dismounted and handed the reins to Poe. He had seen Rey laughing with Finn and Poe, and now she was scowling at him. What had he done to deserve that from her? He had bought something for her, but it seemed pointless to be giving it to her now. She wanted nothing to do with him. But he made sure the two men knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he would not tolerate anyone trying to undermine him where the girl was concerned. 

Entering the kitchen with the package under his arm, he set it on the table and said, “Give it to her to put on for dinner.” 

Maz looked at the brown wrapper package and groaned. “Why couldn’t he just settle on an easy woman?” she asked Chewie after he left.

“Maybe the man likes a challenge?” Chewie asked. “When he was a boy, back before…you know…he always wanted the wildest pony in the remuda. Like he had to prove he was more N’din than the full bloods.”

“So now he thinks That Girl will make him …what? More white?” Maz frowned in distaste. Chewie shrugged. Maz looked again at the package on the table. Probably a dress. God, she hoped it wasn’t an expensive one.

It was. And it was a fight to get Rey into it, but Maz eventually out reasoned her. “Talk to him and don’t get my boy killed,” she insisted. “This is not a man to trifle with, and it’s only everyone’s fear of him that lets you walk around this place unmolested.”

Rey frowned but stopped fighting when Maz pinned the blue silk dress up the back. It really was beautiful, and from anyone else it would have been welcomed, but she was not owned by this man. She would fight him every step of the way.

Once Maz had her ‘prettied’ up, she walked into the dining room where the major and his men were waiting on her. Kylo Ren was not present. Taking her place, she wondered where he was. Finn entered the dining room and the meal began. 

“Isn’t Mr. Ren joining us?” she asked curiously.

“He retired already,” the major answered. “Said he was tired.”

“Ah,” she replied and wondered if that was indeed the truth. So much for the fancy dress. After dinner she returned to the kitchen and found him sitting at the table with only Maz for company. None of the regulars were present. He was nursing a cup of coffee.

“I had expected you are dinner,” she said, trying to use her best English.

“I wasn’t hungry,” he replied. 

“I’ll keep you a plate, if you get hungry,” Maz offered.

“So you must be waiting for me then?” Rey asked. It sounded worse than she meant it. She could see some internal struggle reflected in his eyes. Such dark, beautiful eyes.

Kylo stood up but left his coat on the back on the chair. “We need to talk,” he said and headed for the door. Rey followed. He stopped on the side porch and rolled a cigarette. She waited for him to say what was on his mind.

He finally looked at her and said, “I get it. I’m some dirty half breed unfit to touch your lily white skin. Don’t worry. I won’t impose upon your delicate sensibilities anymore. I’ll let the other men know I’m no longer interested.” With that he walked off.

Rey stood shocked. That wasn’t it at all. It wasn’t! “No!” she yelled and ran after him. “No! That’s not it at all. No!” She caught up to him and grabbed his arm. “No! Don’t you dare!”

He spun around and hissed, “Dare what?”

“You stake a claim to me and I’m supposed to just accept it?”

“I’ve no claim on you,” he stated coldly, the anger burning just below the surface. 

“So now I’m on my own against a ranch full of hard men?”

“You can’t have it both ways, woman. You came here to kill, the major. I can’t let you do that. I was the only one between you and whatever happens now. I hope it’s worth it.”

Traitorous tears filled Rey’s eyes. He saw one slide down her cheek and the hard look on his face softened. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I’ll be better.” Turmoil rolled through him. He wanted this woman so bad, he could taste it, but not this way. “Can we start over?” she pleaded.

He stared at her a long hard moment. “You’ll be staying in my room tonight. Get what you need to be comfortable.”

She gasped in surprise. “Tonight?”

“Tonight. I’ll be up later.”

Rey returned to the house in tears. On her own she would not survive the first day without someone to protect her from the other men, but now she feared she had made a pact with the devil himself.

Terrified of going to sleep, she donned a long white night shirt given to her by Maz and crawled under the covers to wait for Ren.


	2. Pretending?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo's pride is nicked by Hux, but he's too much of a gentleman to take advantage of Rey. But he does make it clear he's not letting her go. Then he goes and gets himself shot.

Rey fell asleep waiting for Kylo Ren to return. When he entered the room some time before ten, he paused to gaze at the woman asleep in his bed. She looked so peaceful and beautiful, her golden brown hair falling across her lovely face. He didn’t want to disturb her. Unbuckling his gun belt and hanging them on the coat rack, he stripped down to his skin but left his trousers on. It had never been his intention to rape her, and he did not want to scare her if she woke up while he washed off.

Rey awoke the moment she heard the door creak. Opening one eye she watched as he poured water from the ceramic pitcher into a basin. She didn’t want him to know she had awakened and quickly closed her eye when he glanced around. A smile creased his slender face. She was unaware that he had seen her watching him in the mirror, but instead of saying anything, he just smiled and resumed washing the grime and sweat off his chest and arms. Unlike most men on the ranch, he actually liked being clean. Cold water held no terror for him. 

Sitting down in a straight back chair, he pulled off his spurs and then boots before standing back up to unbutton his trousers. He hated long johns and wore a style of underwear that was popular back East. If he didn’t want to wear the undershirt, he didn’t have to. The underpants were lighter than the heavy red ones and only went as far as his knees.

Rey peeked again and had to admit he made a fine figure of a man. 

Kylo finished bathing and got into a chest of drawers for a blanket. Wrapping it around himself, he crawled on the bed and said, “Move over.”

Rey sat up suddenly. “How?”

“I could see you watching me in the mirror,” he answered and made himself comfortable on the outside of the bed. “I don’t rape women, so as long as you behave yourself, I won’t bother you.”

“Behave myself?” Rey responded indignantly. 

Kylo glanced back at her. “Of course if you feel the urge, I would not object.”

Rey almost pinched him but then she saw the humor in his eyes. “I’ll try to control myself,” she said and lay back down.

Kylo sat up and blew out the lamp on the bedside table, and the room fell into darkness, although a shard of moonlight sliced across the floor. Rey closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but the closeness of Kylo Ren’s naked back disturbed her. This was not what she expected, and she couldn’t understand why he was making her do this if his intentions were honorable.

Morning came with a terrible need to go pee. Kylo was on his back sleeping soundly, but she needed to climb over him if she was going to make it to the outhouse before she had an accident. Trying not to wake him, she eased her way over him. So of course she kneed him in the side and collapsed on top of him. 

He jumped, remembered he had company, and froze. What was she doing? “I have to go pee,” she explained and prayed he didn’t hit her or something equally upsetting.

He relaxed and lay back down. Not ready to get up, he held up his hand and helped her out of bed. “Cone back,” he said as she made a dash for the door.

Where in hell was she going to go? Wrapped in a sheet in a nightshirt, she was not exactly dressed for roaming around outside. When she returned he was still in bed, lying on his back without any covers over him. Although one could say he was dressed, there was still a lot of him to see. And there was very little if anything left to the imagination. And she had never seen a man’s private part looking like THAT. It was…big? So this was it. Now he was going to have his way with her. Swallowing her pride, she climbed back over him and lay flat on her back waiting. It was damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Sitting up, he folded his legs like an N’din and made himself a smoke. She closed her eyes and squeezed them shut.

Maybe he was going to smoke a smoke first? OK. Maybe that was the way he did things. Maybe it was the N’din way. He lit the cigarette and looked at her. “What are you doing?” he asked curiously.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. “Aren’t you going to have your way with me?”

“Do you want me to?” he asked benignly.

“No. No! Of course not. What do you take me for?”

He smiled but said nothing. Not at first. “One of these days I may have to shoot you, but I will never rape you,” he promised. 

Rey’s eyes widened. “Why are we doing this then?”

“Hux said you’d rather die than let me touch you. I can’t let him get away with that. Play along and you’ll be safe, and I won’t have to shoot him.”

“Do you shoot people often?” she asked in wonder.

“Only when I have to.”

“If I’m supposed to be your…whore, will I get more freedom? I mean can I get a horse or go on rides with you? I’m not cut out for dresses all the time. I want my buckskins back.”

He killed the cigarette in a metal ashtray on the nightstand. “Never call yourself a whore around me again,” he told her. “Ever. And if you hear anyone calling you that, you let me know. Also, I’m good with you having friends, but I want you to use your time to get educated. I want you to become at least as smart as me. Smarter, I hope.”

Rey thought about it a moment. “How long do we keep this make believe up?”

“Until you fall in love with me,” he replied. 

The confession stunned her, but it was not completely unexpected. “Do you want me to move my things in here?”

“No. Not enough room. And I won’t force you to sleep with me every night, unless you want to. Some nights I’ll even sleep in your room.”

Unless you want to? There was an unmistakable longing in his words. “May I return to my room now? I need to clean up a bit before breakfast.” This time she got out of bed without running into him. Pausing at the door, she looked back and asked, “Do you mind if I do some pretendin’ too?”

“Are you going to embarrass me?” 

“I don’t think so…hope I don’t.”

The men were already eating breakfast when Rey arrived in a fresh dress. She went to her place beside Kylo, and he moved the chair back for her, but this time, instead of acting like a scalded dog, she bent over and kissed on the top of his head. The look on everyone’s face was worth the price of admission for that alone.

“I’m going to be helping Maz with wash today. If you have anything, let me know.”

That first week began a routine that would continue indefinitely, or so Rey believed. During the day she helped Maz in the kitchen, while Finn when he could taught her how to read, and Poe, the knowledgeable man that he was taught her American history, as long as it didn’t get too far from Texas. And Kylo Ren, true to his word, never intruded upon this time. 

Rey knew the pretending was hard on him sometimes, that he wanted to do more than pretend, but she didn’t love him, although she was beginning to care, a little. There were things she wanted to ask him but was afraid to, and as long as she was afraid of him, there could only be pretending.

With cold weather coming on, the days were spent gathering wood. Lots of it. Rey actually enjoyed this. Poe hitched up the big draft horses to the wagon, and the five of them hopped aboard and drove into the woods to chop firewood and to gather kindling. Chewie would entertain them with stories of a time before the mountains filled with White men, when the N’dins were Lords of the Wild. Fancy words, but Chewie had the heart of a romantic. 

Bull elk were bugling farther down the valley, and Chewie wanted to go get him one. A nice fat cow he said. Finn wanted to know why when beeves were filling the storage sheds. “A man gets a taste for his own meat,” Chewie replied. “Reminds him of good things.”

Rey had been half starved with Han and Chewie found her. They had been leading an old mule named Falcon, although the only thing remotely falcon like about that mule had been his predisposition towards running away. She feared the wolves had gotten him, but Chewie was convinced the mule was too devilish to let no wolf catch him.

Maz on one of the mornings they went out told them of her first husband, the one before Finn’s grandfather, a handsome Creole gambler from New Orleans named Lando. Smooth with cards and women. The smile on her face told Rey just how smooth Lando had been Got himself shot cheating at cards.

“Men don’t live long cheating at cards,” she surmised. 

They were headed back to the house, when Kylo appeared on the trail riding his big black while leading a smaller white gelding. Poe drew rein on the Belgians and looked back at Rey. The gelding was pure white and kind eyed, and he was already saddled.

“I figured this would be safer if you’ve never ridden before,” Kylo said as she approached the horse with a look of awe on her face.

“Is he mine?” she asked.

“You said you wanted a horse. I had to look around a bit for a proper lady’s horse.”  
Kylo dismounted to help her mount. Rey was dressed in work coveralls like Maz, which would make riding a lot easier. “I’ll get you some riding skirts and a woman’s saddle if you like,” he said and showed her where to grab the saddle horn. Rey heaved herself aboard the horse and grinned proudly at her friends.

“I have a horse,” she announced. “What’s his name? Does he have a name?”

“I don’t know what the people I got him from called him,” Kylo replied and mounted his black.

“Then I’ll call him Lando,” Rey decided, drawing a cackle out of Maz.

“You’re naming the whitest horse in Montana after my Lando?” she asked with pleasure. “I think he would like that.”

Rey’s first ride was back to the ranch with the wagon. Kylo rode with them, but he had to leave and wouldn’t be back until after dark. While the men unloaded the cut logs into a huge woodpile, Maz and Rey watched Kylo ride away. “Gun business will get him dead quicker than my Lando’s gamblin’,” Maz contended with a snort of disgust.

That night, carrying a lamp, Maz awakened Rey and dragged her out of her warm covers. “He’s been shot,” she said and led her back to the kitchen where Kylo was stretched out on the table. The major and Hux were present. 

“Hold his head,” Maz told her. “I gotta get this bullet out before he bleeds to death.”

Finn stoked the fire in the great stove. It was his job to get it up and glowing. Poe peeled the bloody clothes off Kylo’s body while Rey did her best to wrap herself around Kylo’s head and say reassuring nothings to him.

Rey wanted to ask what had happened, but she knew this had nothing to do with her and kept the question in the back of her mind. “Poe, I need you to hold the lamp,” Maz said and reached for a kettle of water on the stove. She poured the water into the basin and then got into a drawer for her special tools. “Finn, the whiskey.” Finn jumped to the cupboard and took out a bottle of unmarked whiskey. “Go get me some clean rags from the closest.” He hurried away to do her bidding while she now focused her attention on the naked man on the table. When Finn returned with all the rags, she took one and held it to the wound while she poured the whiskey straight into it. Kylo didn’t make a sound, although his body tensed from the extra pain.

Rey couldn’t stand it. “What happened?” she finally asked Snoke.

“Rustlers,” Hux answered and offered nothing else.

Poe got Rey a chair so she could sit and hold Kylo’s head. Maz frowned at him but didn’t say anything to him. “The bullet is still in him, and I gotta get it out,” she said without hesitation. “Hold the lamp closer.”

Maz used the long tongs to open the wound.. She could feel the bullet at the end of them. Rey wrapped herself around Kylo’s head whispering steadily to him that it would be all right. Mercifully he passed out when Maz probed for the bullet before latching on to it. She withdrew it and held it up for them to see. .45. 

“Fortunately the one that went through his calf is clean and I don’t need to dig around that,” she said and dropped the bullet into a metal basin. “Now we gotta make a poultice to draw out any poison that might be growing. I don’t smell gut, but you can’t never be sure.”

Maz made a poultice of herbs and mustard and anything else that would draw the poison out of his body. Poe helped her tie it on tight. Then the Kieno carried Kylo back to his room.

“You need to stay with him,” Maz told the girl. “If he takes a turn for the worse, you come get me. I’ll brew up some willow bark tea, don’t try to give it to him lessen  
he’s awake.” Rey knew abut the tea and bobbed her head. “I’ll come every so often and check on you myself. He needs to be watched, but you gonna need a break.”

Rey stood over him a moment staring down at his pale face. He’d lost so much blood his lips were as pale as his skin. Pulling up a chair beside the bed, she sat down to wait. 

Waiting for a man to get better or die was what drove women crazy. When Rey couldn’t sit with him, Finn did, but she was never away very long. If he woke up, she wanted her face to be the first one he saw. Maz brought a pot of tea but he never woke up. After everyone went to bed, Rey recognized the first signs of fever. He was burning up but shaking hard whenever his skin hit the air. She crawled under the covers with him and pressed her chest to his back. Higher up on the pillows, she knew she wasn’t going to get much sleep. Still she was able to drift off periodically. Each time she woke up she pressed the flat of her hand against his chest feeling both for his breath and heart beat. 

“You can’t die,” she whispered to him. “Who’s gonna teach me how to ride a horse like a lady, if you do?” Yeah, that sounded stupid even to her, but she just had to say something or bust. “Who’s gonna keep me safe?” She snuggled into the hollow of his neck. He was so much taller than her that her entire upper half curved around his chest and head.

Eventually she dozed off and didn’t awaken again until light filled the room. Suddenly frightened, she felt his chest and was relieved to find him breathing evenly and his heart beating. Easing out of bed she checked the poultice and was pleased to see no fresh blood on it.

Needing to step out for a minute, she opened the door and found herself face to face with the major. Startled they both stared at each for a moment and then the major asked, “How is he?”

“Better,” Rey replied. “His fever broke last night.”

This seemed to satisfy the major. “I’ll have a plate sent to the room,” he said and turned away. 

When Maz came by after breakfast, she helped Rey clean him up and change the sheets. He drifted in and out of wakefulness, the pain in his gut drawing heartbreaking moans and groans out of him. This time they were able to get some tea down him. Not the best of tastes, it would keep the fever away and even help a little with some of the pain he was in. 

Modesty and bashfulness went out the window. Rey had to help him with everything, even rolling a smoke one evening after moving from the bed to a chair by the window. Chatting about the kitchen gossip, how Finn was attracted to a new girl the Major had hired from Rawlings, Rey did not notice at first the look he was giving her. When she did, the ache in his eyes was almost too much to bear. He gently grabbed her arm and drew her to him. And even though it still hurt like hell to move around, he raised his face to meet hers.

Rey melted into the kiss, so soft and sensuous and tender. “I love you,” he whispered against her lips.

She gasped and folded her hand around his jaw. Tears sprang to her eyes as she clung desperately to his mouth. “I love you too,” she sighed against his lips. When she drew back the light in his eyes was brilliant to see.

“It’s still going to be awhile before I can do anything,” he said with a laugh. 

“It doesn’t matter. I want you well,” she said.

He kissed her again. This time it was fuller and wetter. “You’ve been cooped up in this room with me, all this time. Ask Poe to let you ride your horse in the corral. I want to watch you.”


	3. Becoming Lovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo and Rey become lovers. Skywalker makes his appearance.

The first snowfall of the winter always brought the memories back to Kylo, of another time that seemed so long ago it was almost as if memories were all he had left. That he was the only proof that any of it had ever happened. A twelve year old boy, the son of an army scout and a Cheyenne woman, standing by a freezing stream watching dogs fight over a discarded animal skin had to have been someone else. While the women stoking the fires to feed their families existed only in his memories.

Seemed like there were more Whites these days and fewer people. But then there never were as many people as Whites, or so Kylo Ren remembered. When you’re twelve you don’t give anything but a full belly much thought. He didn’t like to think about that day much.

Still aching from the gut shot, using a walking stick of lodgepole pine, he moved slowly down the porch to sit in a rocking chair, a buffalo robe across his shoulders keeping him warm. Rey, in coveralls and a thick flannel coat, sat on her horse chatting away with Finn and Poe, who was replacing the shoes on Hux’s gelding. Seeing Kylo, she trotted over with a big grin on her face.

“I’m getting better,” she announced proudly.

“I see,” he agreed and detected someone riding out of the mountains on the Blue Ridge Trail. Riders entered the valley from that pass, but most swung around to the east and the settlement of Hawthorne. This man was turning towards the ranch. Standing up and leaning his hand against the post, Kylo watched the rider leisurely approach them at a non hurried gait . “Rey, go inside and tell the Major that Skywalker is here.” Rey glanced back over her shoulder at the approaching horseman. “Go on, now. Hurry.”

Jumping off her horse, she ran inside. When she returned, Snoke and Hux were with her, their eyes hard on the man now riding past the corrals into the yard. Drawing rein in front of them, the sandy haired bearded man, called out, “I was hoping you’d offer a cup of coffee.”

“Step down and come inside,” Snoke called back.

The man stepped down and looped his horse’s reins over the hitching post. He followed the three men into the house. Rey started to follow but Kylo stopped her. “We’ll be talking business, and some things I don’t want you involved in.”

Rey hesitated and then backed up. Who was this man Skywalker? What did he want with the major?

Maz poured the four men coffee at the big table. They could add cream and sugar if they wanted. Skywalker took his heavy coat off and set it on the counter with his gloves. He eyed Kylo a moment and then said, “Word was you got killed this last time.”

“Premature as you can see,” Snoke answered for Kylo. “You rode a long way to check on him.”

Skywalker sat down and took a sip of black coffee before saying anything. “Well, Major, word is one of those men killed was not a rustler but a cowboy from out Idaho way.”

“He was riding with rustlers,” Snoke countered. “The law says I can protect what’s mine.”

“The law also says you don’t take it into your own hands,” Skywalker reminded him. “Shoot the wrong person and it’ll be your life we take.”

“He protects my property,” Snoke answered, the only one speaking. Skywalker looked frustrated.

“Times are changing, Major. The big ranches are starting to fall. You may well be one of the last of the old ones.”

“I was here before the others arrived. I will be here after they are gone,” Snoke assured him.

“Not if you don’t follow the law.” Skywalker sat up straight. “Well, I’ve seen what I’ve wanted to see….”

“Stay over tonight,” Snoke suddenly spoke up. “Accept my hospitality.”

Skywalker relaxed. “I would like that.”

 

Rey wanted to rush into the house and see what was happening but decided to wait. She didn’t get to meet Skywalker until dinner when she showed after all the men were seated. Her appearance surprised him.

Wiping his mouth, he half rose and said, “Where are our manners?”

Rey grinned and took her seat beside Kylo. “Everyone is used to me,” she replied comfortably. “They pay me no mind.”

“We would starve if we waited on her,” Hux said and resumed eating.

“Well, I for one wouldn’t mind waiting,” Skywalker said. Getting back to the business of eating, he raised his eyes and watched Rey’s interaction with Kylo. “You didn’t tell me you had a wife,” he told Ren.

“There’s been no preacher,” Kylo replied indifferently.

Skywalker grunted to himself and went back to eating. It wasn’t unusual for men to live with women without the benefit of clergy, but he hated mysteries. Still, he didn’t live as long as he had by being stupid. “I heard some elk when I was riding into the valley. I think maybe I’ll try and get me one when I head out tomorrow.”

“Have one of the men tack up a packhorse for you,” Snoke offered. “You can return it the next time you pass this way.”

“That’s very sociable of you,” Skywalker said and accepted the use of the animal. He suspected they didn’t want him tarrying too long in the valley asking awkward questions. “Any chance I might get a guide?” he asked Kylo.

“I could take you out,” the gunman answered.

Rey looked concerned. “You haven’t ridden since that night.”

“I’m all right,” he assured her. “I’ll borrow your horse.” His teasing smile drew one out of her.

“I was hoping you’d let me come along,” she said. “I can be very quiet.”

“Absolutely,” Skywalker spoke up. “I insist Kylo. Bring your lady.”

Kylo nodded his answer. That night in his dreams Kylo heard the N’din ponies screaming...along with the screams of the dying people. They were supposed to have been safe! He heard his mother yelling his name and watched as she ran towards him with a soldier chasing her.

He awoke calling his mother’s name. Someone was touching his face, and it took him a moment to realize it was Rey. And she was worried about him. She kissed his face and smoothed his cheek with her hand. It took him a minute to collect his thoughts and emotions. This always happened when the cold weather came. But this time was different.

He wrapped an arm around her neck and drew her lips down to his. With his free hand he ran it down her body, the nightshirt frustrating his attempt to claim what was rightfully his. “Don’t move,” he said as he released her neck. Using both hands, he ripped the nightshirt open. She shuddered when his hands closed around her tender breasts. “That’s better,” he whispered in the dark. He shifted so one of those ripe cherry nipples fell into his mouth. Sucking greedily on it, he kept his hands busy on her soft as silk skin. Her mews filled his ears with pleasure. She was his woman and her body was his to please and to use for his own pleasure. 

Trapped between his mouth and large warm hands, Rey shuddered, unsure of what was happening to her, only knowing that he was going to take her somewhere she had never been before. When his fingers reached between her legs she thought she was going to fall apart. Then he touched her in a way that no one had ever touched her. He was gentle but persistent, and then it happened. The sharpest of pleasures hit her. She threw her head back while he murmured something she couldn’t understand against her skin, his fingers continuing to stroke her in the most intimate of ways. When she couldn’t take anymore, he removed his hand and licked her juices off his fingers.

What now? What about him.? He eased her on her side and turned to face her. “Give me your hand,” he said, his voice deep and rich with need. Rey knew what he wanted.. He placed her hand on the flat plane of his belly and said, “Touch me.”

Rey eased her hand lower. She had seen him naked when wounded, but this was different. Wrapping her hand around the swollen shaft, she smiled when he gasped. He was so thick and hard, and when her hand moved lower she felt his balls up high and tight against his body. He dropped his head a little while she played with him.

“Do you want me?” he suddenly gasped.

“Yes.”

“On your back,” he said, almost pleading with her.

Now he was over her, and she could feel him hot and heavy rubbing against her. He positioned himself and then slipped his backbone, entering her in one smooth stroke. It burned for a moment, but it quickly gave way to something more wonderful. Her hands were alive on his back and possessive of the powerful flanks that thrust him steadily into her. He pushed himself up to keep his weight off her, which gave her a chance to touch his chest and scarred belly. 

“Put your legs around me,” he said and paused a moment. Rey did as he asked. He fucked her hard now, his cock a piston in her pussy, but it didn’t last long. With one powerful thrust, he slammed into her and froze. She wanted to see his face but had to settle on touching it. 

He rolled off her and collapsed in a well fucked heap. Rey snuggled closer and was welcomed in the crook of his arm, but there was no small talk or sweet nothings. Kylo fell back asleep. It took Rey a little longer to doze back off.

 

Kylo smiled as they dismounted and approached the huge herd of elk on foot. Skywalker carried a well-used 1874 Sharps rifle also know as a buffalo gun. It was guaranteed to kill whatever it hit. Rey toted his updated 76 Winchester, which would do the job if she hit anything with it, and he wore a Colt double action on his hip. This was pretty useless against an elk.

Since the herd would scatter once a shot was taken, the two hunters selected the animals they were going to harvest. Bulls were nice if you wanted hide and horn, but for good eating, a young cow was the best.

Kylo hovered behind Rey but offered no criticism. Chewie had sworn to him that very morning that she was as fine a hunter as any man. Sighting on one plump cow chewing on some dry grass, she waited for Skywalker to find his target. Once both were sighted, the two hunters fired almost simultaneously. 

 

Skywalker field dressed his kill and strapped it to the borrowed mule. He parted company with Kylo and Rey at the foot of the pass. “That was fun,” Rey announced beside Kylo who was leading their pack mule.

Kylo smiled. “I thought last night was more fun,” he said and grinned harder when a blush crawled up her throat to her face. “May have to try it again tonight.”

“Only if you clean this thing,” she teased. “If I have to do it, I may end up too tired.” The look of surprise on his face tickled her. “I think that’s fair, don’t you?”

Not to be one upped, he replied, “Looks like I’m going to have to show you something a fancy woman showed me one time.”

“A fancy woman?” she retorted, a strange sensation of jealousy picking at her brain. “How many fancy women have you known?”

Kylo laughed. It was nice seeing her acting possessive. Made him feel important.


	4. Frontier justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Violent men take Rey and Rose captive. Finn tries to protect them. Kylo rides with Poe to bring justice to the men who hurt Rey.

“Maz thinks it’ll be a boy,” Rey chattered happily into his ear.

Kylo could only moan “mmmm’ as he tried to go back to sleep, which was damn near impossible with a naked woman lying on his back filling his ears full of whatever was on her mind. Teach him to wake her up early for a quick one.

“She thinks I’m almost three months along, and that it’ll be here before summer gets good and started.” He moaned again. “What if it’s a girl?” Alarm sounded in her voice. “Will you care if it’s not a boy?” What if he didn’t want a girl?!

“No,” he moaned a little more coherently. “I don’t care if it has horns and a tail.”

Rey sat up taking most of the covers with her. Grinning at his comment, she asked, “Are you sayin’ your some kind of a bull?”

No, but he could go with it. “Mooo,” he moaned again into his pillow.

“Maz says there’s going to be wild onions now. We’re going out to get some,” she told him and leaned back over his naked body. She loved the feel of his naked skin on hers. “Let’s do it again.”

Kylo Ren had turned a simple country girl into a sex demon. He didn’t know whether to beat his chest proudly or bang his head against the wall. “Let me rest a minute,” he mumbled into the pillow. 

“All you do is rest,” she admonished him and sat up again.

“Sweetheart?”

“Yes?”

“Can you leave me some covers? Your jumpin’ around like a jackrabbit is getting me cold.”

Rey frowned him. She was half tempted to throw the covers off both of them and take her hand to his gorgeous ass. Getting out of bed, keeping the covers around her, she walked to the chair across the ice cold floor. Taking the quilts off long enough to throw them at him, she reached for her clothes. Looking down at the soft swell of her belly, she growled, “Listen to papa calling us a jackrabbit.” She rubbed it proudly. She was going to have a baby!

Getting dressed she hurried down to the kitchen where Maz had the big oven going and a small group of men was already stopping for hot coffee. Biscuits were in the oven and hot meat was frying on stove. Jellies and preserves that they had canned in season were on the table. On a morning like this even the Major would be coming to the warm kitchen for breakfast. “Are we going out today?” Rey asked the woman and tried to steal a piece of meat out of pan.

Maz swatted her hand with a wooden spoon and said, “ We’ll go after breakfast. Where’s that lazy man of yours?”

“Being lazy,” Rey answered and took a cup of coffee from Poe. She set it on the table and loaded it down with canned milk and sugar. “I think I’m getting cabin fever.”

“That’s two of us,” Rose, the Asian girl, said and smiled at Finn who was sitting at the table waiting for his breakfast. She had been purchased in Billings by the Major to help Maz. Although nothing was said about it, her friendship with Rey probably kept her safer than without it. No one wanted to piss Kylo off.

After breakfast, everything was cleared and a mule was hitched to a cart. Finn drove the mule while the three women sat in the back and kicked their feet off the rear of it. Talk was pleasant, mostly Maz telling stories of when she first came to New Orleans. There was still snow on the high peaks but the trail they were taking was relatively dry although slow going. But no one was in a hurry. Finn had seen the onions a couple of days earlier at the bottom of the Southern Pass, a rough trail over the mountain but the one that came out due south of the valley.

Arriving at the meadow the women went to work pulling wild onions for stews and scrambled eggs. Maz had some hens in a coop and the old rooster was doing his wake up calls more frequently now. Finn wasn’t interested in eggs and onions, but Maz had the younger women convinced that it would be good for their blood.

Rose was the one who came face to face with the wild looking horsemen first. Finn had a shot gun but it was mostly for varmints not men. Looking back at the others, she called out, “Finn!”

Unknown men were never a good thing to run into when your only protection was a single barrel shotgun. Finn put on his bravest face and came forward with the shotgun cradled in his arms. He didn’t like messing with wild looking white men but the women were counting on him. “Can I help you, gentlemen?” The Major always said be polite until you didn’t have to be. The looks they were giving Rey and Rose told him he wouldn’t have to pretend too much longer. “We all work for Major Snoke of First Order Ranch. This is his land you are standing on.”

“Really?” the one with the red tobacco stained beard said and moved his horse closer to Rey. 

Trying to keep her rising panic at bay, Rey stood her ground and stared up at the grinning bastard. “Do you know the name Kylo Ren? He’s my husband.”

Red beard spit a stream of tobacco juice on the ground. “I heard the half breed had a white girl. No one said she was so purdy.”

“You leave that girl alone!” Maz spoke up angrily. “Kylo Ren will hunt you down like a dog if you lay a hand on her.”

“I don’t see him here now,” red beard said while the other two equally nasty men laughed.  
“You need to get!” Maz continued. “You need to get now!”

“We’ll take the girls and mule with us,” red beard said. “Cut him loose and put them on him.”

“No!” Finn barked and swung the shotgun around. But while he had courage, he didn’t have the firepower the stragglers had. One of them whipped out his pistol and fired. Rey and Rose screamed as Finn hit the ground. Maz attacked the man with her little hand shovel, but he kicked her aside. The two younger women turned and ran, but they couldn’t out run two horses. Both women fought as best as they could, but they were no match for the determined men. Rey feared for her baby and she could see the same worry in Rose’s eyes as their hands were tied behind their backs. They were then placed on the back of the mule.

Maz, sitting on the ground beside Finn, looked up with tears streaming down her face, warned them, “He’ll come for you, and he won’t quit until you’re dead. He’ll kill you. You can count on that.” 

Fearing that the gun fire echoing across the valley may have already alerted the men at the ranch to their presence, the three men rode back up the trail with their captives.

Maz checked her grandson’s wound and found it was high in his chest and probably not lethal. “Finn, boy, come on wake up. We gotta get back to the ranch. I can’t carry you.”

Finn stirred and eventually opened his eyes. “Where are they?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“They took’em. Those men took the girls,” she wept and helped Finn to his feet. The stragglers had taken the shotgun so there was nothing for him to lean on but her shoulder. “We gotta get back.”

Poe was working on an ox yoke when he heard someone shouting far off. Raising his head, he stared towards the noise and froze in horror. Finn and Maz were on foot yelling for help. Hopping on the back of a haltered work horse, he kicked it into a run and raced towards the two desperate people.

“Madre Dios, what has happened?” he asked and slipped off the horse.

“They took the girls,” Finn gasped. “I tried to stop them but they shot me.”

Poe helped Finn on the back of the horse and then Maz. “Hang on,” he said and dragged the horse as fast as he could go. Wearing a snake killer in his belt, he took it out and fired a couple of rounds in the air. One of the ranch hands galloped up to see what was going on.

“Rey and Rose have been abducted,” Poe explained. “Go tell Kylo.”  
He dragged the horse back to the yard and helped Finn and Maz to the ground. Kylo came running. “What happened?” he demanded angry and scared at the same time.

Maz told him what happened while Poe got the black stallion and another horse saddled. “I’m going with you,” he told the gunman. “Three against one. You could use the help.”

Kylo didn’t argue. Climbing on the back of his Thoroughbred stallion, he kicked it into a hard gallop with Poe close behind. The stragglers almost had two hours on them, and they were probably riding like devils from hell were after them. If anything happened to Rey or Rose, they’d wish it were devils after them. Kylo’s thoughts were anything but civilized right now.

 

Rey was tired and sore. The mule was a big raw boned animal bred for pulling not riding, and it was hard on her bottom. Rose actually fell off once, which got her a beating as she was thrown back on the mule’s back. Rey pleaded with them to tie them together, and to tie her hands to the mule’s mane, what there was of it. Red beard decided to tie her hands in front of her. She could hold on to the stiff mane as best she could.

They reached the summit in the early afternoon after hours of hard riding. The men wanted to stop and see who was following them. Rey knew who was coming and reveled in it until she realized they meant to ambush Kylo. “Say one word and we’ll shoot you first,” red beard promised and dragged them off the mule. 

Rey stared back down the trail miles below and glimpsed a man on a black horse and another one on a light bay. Poe was with Kylo! The three men had set up ambush positions. They were going to pick Kylo and Poe off before they even knew they were up there. Rey stared at red beard, her heart hammering in her breast. She couldn’t let him murder Kylo and Poe. She just couldn’t. Easing forward, careful to be quiet, she slipped her roped hands around red beard’s throat and pulled hard. Rose threw rocks at the other two. 

Kylo jumped off his horse and drew his pistols at the commotion up top. He could see her! He could see Rey struggling with one of the men. The unthinkable happened, the man slipped and fell dragging Rey with him. Horrified, he jumped on his horse and spurred him towards the two prone bodies in a rock slide. Poe’s rifle was taking out or driving off the other two men.

“Rey! Rey!” he shouted and ran to her. He could see her hands were tied around the man’s throat. When he fell he took her with him. Drawing his buck knife, he cut her free and turned her over. “Baby! Baby! Please,” he begged and held her up. The man stirred but Kylo was in no mood to deal with him. One rummy blue eye opened on him before Kylo shot him. Rey stirred but she was in trouble.

Poe raced on up the ridge to get Rose. He brought her back to the slide.  
“Is she all right?” Poe asked anxiously and knelt beside them.

“She’s bleeding,” Kylo answered, his heart breaking. Maybe Rey wasn’t losing the baby, but he feared she was. He would take her back to the ranch and then finish the job.

It was dark when they arrived at First Order. Rey’s blood was soaked into his trousers along with other things. He knew the baby was gone but he didn’t want to think about it. Carrying Rey to his room, he laid her in his bed and asked Maz or Rose to stay with her until he returned. He had to finish this. Poe looked and him, asking with his eyes if he needed company. Kylo accepted the Kieno’s offer. They changed horses and spoke briefly with the Major before riding out into the night. They would rest when two men were dead.

For the sake of the horses they did make a cold camp on the mountain trail. Poe slept fitfully and every time he turned over he could see Kylo smoking while sitting cross legged or leaned on one elbow. The sun was just crawling over the mountain ridge when they resumed their ride. 

Running into a peddler who was headed to Hawthorne, they stopped and asked him if he had seen two men riding like death was following them. “They kidnapped a white woman, and we got her back,” Poe explained. “They gotta pay for what they did.” Poe would have added Rose, but the truth was most people didn’t think much of Asian girls. It was unlikely the peddler would give up two white men for an Asian girl.

“We don’t have all day,” Kylo said, the threat in his voice unmistakable. 

The peddler finally said, “Yeah, I saw two men like that. They were headed towards Cassidy.”

Kylo and Poe rode on. Cassidy was a mail stop with a saloon, hotel and some houses. If one continued towards the east, they’d run into the badlands. Due north would eventually take them into Canada if the bastards meant to make a run for it. Of course there were the cities, but men like these would be noticed. They wanted to get as far away from the valley as they could.

It was well past midnight when they rode into Cassidy, and everything was locked tight. The horses in need of rest were left at the livery while Poe and Kylo had a walk around. Poe would have slept in the livery but Kylo woke up the clerk and got them a room. No danger of anyone sneaking up on them.

The next morning they walked over to the saloon where Kylo asked the bar keep if he had seen two men who looked like the men who had attacked Rey and Rose.

“Why might you be interested in them?” the man asked and poured them some coffee. 

“They kidnapped my wife, and I mean to kill them,” Kylo answered coldly and without apology.

The bar keep looked startled. “Two men looking like that were in here yesterday. I think they rode on.”

Poe realized if Kylo didn’t that they’d lost the men. “Rey will be worrying about you. We need to go back.”

Kylo didn’t say anything. Finishing the coffee, he walked back outside with Poe following. “You’re probably right,” he finally decided. He needed to check on her, and she would be worrying about him. Frustrated but unable to go on, he cursed and adjusted his hat. Time to go home. 

Walking down the street back towards the livery, he noticed two men coming from the side of a boarding house. They spotted him and jerked their guns first. It was over in seconds, and two men lay dead on the street. An inquiry declared it a fair fight. Kylo paid the undertaker twenty dollars to bury them.

Rey couldn’t stop crying. Her baby was gone, and now she feared Kylo and Poe were also gone. She couldn’t stand it. Finn and Rose never left her alone, but it wasn’t enough. She needed Kylo. She needed to know he was all right. 

Unable to rest or sleep, she sat on the porch waiting until Rose came and got her and dragged her off to bed. “You won’t do anyone any good if you get your death of cold,” Rose said sympathetically.

Rey got up but stopped. A horse in the corral whinnied and was answered by another horse in the distance. Kylo! Kylo was home. 

“Wait!” Rose said and ran after her. “Rey, it might not be him.”

Rey knew it was Kylo! He was home! Seeing her running towards him, her shawl flapping behind her like angel wings, the light from the ranch silhouetting her, Kylo leaped out of the saddle and swept her into his arms.


	5. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo grieves for his lost child and Luke returns the mule. Trouble is brewing.

Kylo grieved over his lost child, but not in front of Rey. For her he had to be strong and reassuring. Sitting on a rocky out cropping one leg drawn up, his boot heel hooked on the edge of the ancient boulder, he permitted himself the grief he felt. Maz said when Rey got pregnant again, the sadness would lift. He hoped it would for both of them. Right now he was eat up with guilt for letting her go out without him.

The stallion looked back and whickered softly. Jumping to his feet, Kylo drew his pistols and readied himself for an attack.

“I mean no harm,” Skywalker said and held his hands up. “Just returning the mule.”

Kylo slipped his pistols back in his holster. It was time for him to head back to the ranch before Rey started worrying. Catching the reins of his stallion, he mounted up and started back down the trail with Skywalker following.

Luke Skywalker looked at the young man’s back, remembering the boy he found in the aftermath of raid on a Cheyenne camp. Half dead among the bodies of his mother’s people, Kylo Ren would have died but for the cold. Snoke for reasons only he knew took the boy from Skywalker and carried him back to the ranch that would come to rule the valley. 

Where was Han Solo in all this? In a bottle grieving over a mistake that had cost him his family. And even when he found out his son had survived, there was no going to him. The question that bothered Luke was why had Snoke had Han killed.

Leaving the pass, Luke rode up to Kylo’s side and asked it plain and simple, “Who killed Han and why?”

Kylo did not answer right away and then heaved a heavy sigh. “I did. Chewie says he saw it, but either he’s lying or covering. I don’t care.”

Luke was actually not surprised. “Why?”

Kylo thought back on that day. The morning had been cold when the soldiers attacked. Just killing everyone without even stopping to spare the babies and little ones. His mother running to him calling his name while a soldier rode down on her. And him getting a saber cut in the back. No one wanted to waste a bullet on him. And lying there on the cold ground in pain, dying. And the last face he saw before he passed out was his father’s stricken face. Han Solo was with the troops who killed his mother. In his twelve year old mind his father became his mother’s murderer.

“He was with them,” Kylo said and rolled a cigarette. “And he left me for dead.”

“An eye for an eye,” Luke murmured.

“He was caught read handed skinning one of the Major’s calves,” Kylo corrected him. “Hux wanted to hang him, but he attacked me instead. I shot him to save myself.”

Luke threw Kylo a skeptical glance. There was no way Han Solo could have been a threat to Kylo. But it made sense to him. Better to be shot by your son and atone for your sins than be hung as a worthless cattle rustler. Kylo Ren lit the cigarette but a tear streaked down his face. Luke blinked in surprise.

Kylo drew up his horse and for a moment surrendered to the misery he felt. Just a moment. Just a dozen heart beats for his lost child, Rey’s suffering and his own.  
“Is it just a coincidence that you are here now?” he asked curiously without looking at the marshal.

Now Luke had to be honest. “I heard about the two men you killed. Justified they say.”

Kylo sat up straight. “They tried to make off with Rey. I tracked them down and killed them. Justified or not, they are dead.” Pulling hard on the cigarette, he let the smoke curl around his mouth and nostrils. “They caused her to lose our baby. I’d kill them again if I had to.”

Kylo had been too young to protect his mother, and he had failed Rey when she needed him most. He would never fail her again. Ever. Urging the stallion forward, he got his emotions under control on the ride to the ranch. She would never see him weak. 

As they neared the ranch they could hear Poe hammering on his anvil. There was smoke coming out of the chimney in the kitchen area. And Rey was standing in the yard waiting for him to return. She only had eyes for the man she loved, not even speaking to Luke until she had embraced Kylo and kissed him, reassuring herself that he was still there, still warm and alive. Then, and only then did she acknowledge Luke.

“Marshall Skywalker,” she greeted and offered her hand.

“Luke. I meant to tell you that the last time I was here.”

“Are you staying the night? I know we would all love news from the outside world.”

“If it’s all right with the Major.”

A door slammed and a gruff voice answered, “Of course it’s all right with the Major.” Snoke, leaning on a cane, walked to the edge of the porch and said, “We’d love to hear what’s going on our there.”

Finn came over to get the horses. He was still sore in the shoulder, but his grandmother assured him that work would help it heal quicker. He wasn’t so sure about that, but a smart man never argued with his grandmother.

“What are you looking at?” he asked the Spanish mule as he turned towards the corral. There was no beating a good mule, and beating a bad one never accomplished anything either. He unsaddled the horses and hung the saddles on the top rail of the corral. Turning all three animals into it, he paused a moment and admired the Thoroughbreds. One of these days he told himself he was going to have a fine horse too. Maybe a dozen fine horses. 

 

Hux and four men rode across the valley towards a homesteader’s shack, a recent structure in what was technically open range. Someone had told him that he had seen a calf hide on a fence that must have come from a First Order cow. Homesteaders were like ticks on a dog, popping up everywhere and turning the green valley into burnt out farms and filth.

Arriving at the shack, he took note of the poverty sitting before him. A wormy little boy looked up at him in dirty clothes. Ignoring the child Hux rode across the yard towards the fenced in garden.

“Can I help you?” a man called from a shed.

Hux didn’t like to play games and said, “I was told you had a calf skin belonging to one of our cows.”

The man realized his danger and stepped out of the shed with a shotgun in hand. “This is my land and you need to git now.” Hux frowned. Reining his horse around, he was about to ride away when he spotted the calf skin. Easing the horse around he rode slowly towards it. “What are you doin’?” the man demanded.

“Porter, come look at this,” Hux called back to one of the men.

That man nudged his horse forward. He stared hard at the hide. The Major was experimenting with Hereford cattle and this was a Hereford hide. “It’s one of ours Mr. Hux.”

“That’s what I thought. Get the hide.”

The sodbuster foolishly jerked his shotgun around and said, “Don’t you touch that. I bought that hide.”

Hux looked aghast. “You spent money on a hide while your family lives in squalor? What kind of animal are you?”

“Don’t touch that skin,” the man repeated and made a threatening gesture.

“Get it,” Hux told Porter. “Maybe now the law will stop this nonsense.”

The sodbuster made his play, but it was the wrong one. He swung his shotgun around and fired, but not before Hux pulled his weapon and beat him to the draw. The shotgun exploded noisily into the air.

“Well that turned messy,” Hux said and holstered his weapon. “Get it and let’s go.”

 

Luke Skywalker ate supper with the Major and filled everyone in on gossip outside of the valley including a piece of news that surprised everyone,; he was going to be the law in Hawthorne. An appointed position. With all the people moving into the valley, the higher ups wanted someone who could keep an eye on things.

“Really?” Hux asked curiously. “I suppose you will find out sooner or later then, but one of your homesteaders butchered one of our calves and when I tried to acquire the hide to prove he was a thief, he drew on me. I shot him in self defense.”

Everyone at the table stopped eating but Hux. Luke didn’t want to start anything and simply said, “I’ll probably have to look into it in the morning.”

For once Rey was grateful Kylo had not been a part of it. That night in bed, in his arms, she snuggled against him while he tried to doze off. After losing the baby, they had not had a chance to make love, but Rey was filled with a strange fear that made her want to touch him, want to love him. Easing over him, she ran her hands along his strong chest. The intimacy of the touch opened his eyes.

“I didn’t think you could,” he started to say but she stopped him.

“Pretend I’m a fancy woman,” she murmured and leaned down to kiss a dark nipple. He stirred restlessly. Kylo was hungry for affection and her hand quickly had him hard and eager. She kissed her way down the flat plane of his belly and took little bites out of his skin. His moans were soft and needy.

Rey took his cock in hand and studied it a moment. Not exactly an expert on cocks, she had to say she was pleased with how perfect his looked, so long and hard and smooth. His balls filled her other hand and she loved the way they felt there. This big bad gunslinger trusted her to not hurt him. That was heady. Easing closer, she released his balls and held his cock straight up to admire. 

Playing with him she licked the hot shaft slowly and seductively, flicking her tongue on the sensitive underside until he moaned loudly. To have this beautiful, powerful man under her complete control was intoxicating. Getting in the right position, drawing it all out, she held his cock just so and then lowered her mouth to it.

Kylo clawed the sheets. Rey’s mouth was so hot, the pressure building in his balls as she sucked on the swollen head and used her tongue to exquisitely torture him. She found the sweet spot beneath his balls and gently rubbed it while using her other hand and mouth on his cock. He was going to cum. He gave Rey the chance to back off by warning her, but she doubled down her effort. He hissed and filled her mouth with cum. He could hear her giggling as she swallowed.


	6. Luke becomes Marshal of Hawthorne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke is beginning to see that trouble is brewing between the newcomers and the First Order Ranch. He also is beginning to think Kylo and Rey need to leave.

It was some time after one when Luke rode into the settlement of Hawthorne. The largest building in town was a saloon/supply store run by a man named Biggs. Although it was a week day there were two horses hitched to the post on the saloon side. A church fought to be noticed at the end of the street and close to it an even smaller schoolhouse. A few houses lined the street along with a small hotel and café. The sheriff’s office and jail were across the street from it. For a hundred dollars a month, he was now Hawthorne’s sheriff. A shed in the back was for his horse.

Since this was now his new home, he rode around to the shed and unsaddled his horse. Knowing he was coming, someone had left a bale of hay for his horse. “Thought,” he remarked to the patient animal and patted his neck.

As expected people were beginning to notice him. The proprietor of the hotel and his wife stood on the porch and watched him unlock the door to the office and enter it. Who knew when anyone had been in here last. Dust an inch thick covered everything. And the mattress in the single cell needed a good airing out. Deciding that there was no time like now, he went to work, dragging the mattress out and laying it against the building. A potbelly stove in need of some serious cleaning was his next project. He needed coffee and right now if he tried to start a fire it would blow back in his face and set the building on fire.

By suppertime he had it somewhat presentable. The mattress was dragged back inside and thrown on the bunk. This would be his bed until it was needed for someone else. A leather cord kept the door from closing on him. As hungry as he was he was looking forward to a decent supper at the café. Walking across the street he took note of who was out and who was watching him.

The café was open and a couple of people were having their supper when Luke sat down at a table. He got the distinct feeling that the people around him were suspicious or afraid. Finally the manager of the hotel came over and sat with him. “I hope you like the stew, sheriff,” he began cordially. 

“It’s very good, thank you.”

“Good. I’m going to get right to the point. What are you going to do about that half breed gunfighter who killed Hettie Johnson’s husband yesterday?”

Luke wiped his mouth. “What time did this occur?”

“Yesterday afternoon. Just rode up and shot him.”

Rule one, never call a grieving widow a liar. However, “We have a small problem,” Luke explained. “Hux admitted that he shot him over a butchered calf. Said Johnson went for his weapon first.” Getting back to his food, he added, “Ren was with me yesterday.”

“You?”  
“Met him on the pass. Rode with me to the ranch.”

The manager looked confused and turned to his wife who had stopped to listen. “Why would Hettie say it was Ren then?”

“Bill Thompson asked her if it was Ren, and she said yes,” the handsome blonde woman replied. “She must not have seen it.”

“That makes sense,” Luke said. “Still I’ll ride out and get her story “I’m not partial to Hux, and I do know he’ll push the law, but I never took him for open murder.” Resuming his meal, he eyed the two people and said, “It would be helpful if I knew who I was talking to.”

The manager wiped his hand on his apron and stuck it out cordially. “I’m Howard Billingsley. This is my wife Anna.”

Luke accepted the offered hand.

The next morning he rode out to the homestead where a skinny woman and some skinny kids worked on a fence rail that had come down. He dismounted and helped them get it back into place and tied. “Thank-you,” the woman said and shoved a strand of hair out of her face. Seeing the badge on Luke’s vest, she said, “Marshall.”

“Ms. Johnson, I came to get your report on what happened,” Luke explained and took out his small writing book out of his vest pocket with the stub of a pencil.

“They half breed murdered my husband,” she snapped. “Shot him down in cold blood.”

“Well, there’s a problem with that. The foreman of the ranch said he did it over a rustled calf, and Ren was with me when this was happening.”

“I know what I saw,” the woman repeated but there was some hesitation in her voice this time.

“Please tell me then what exactly it was you saw.”

After an hour of prompting, Luke got the story. Ms. Johnson had been too afraid to poke her head out the door. She had heard more than one horse but one of her neighbors had convinced her the man who had killed her husband had been Kylo Ren. Luke rode over to introduce himself to the farmer on the patch over from Hettie and to let him know that Kylo Ren had not been the one to kill Johnson. He was going to present his findings to the county judge and see if he wanted to investigate it further.

Although it was proving to be a long day, he had one more stop to make.

 

Poe Dameron looked up from his anvil and grinned as Luke rode up. “Can’t stay away from Maz’s cooking?” he asked and shook the marshal’s hand when he dismounted.

“Official business this time,” Luke explained, although a poke of Maz’ biscuits would be right neighborly of them. “Have you seen the Major?”

“I think he’s in his office.”

“What about Kylo?”

Poe frowned and said, “He rode out with Hux to check a fence that may have been cut.”

“Damn!” Luke cursed under his breath. “I need to see the Major.”

“Yeah sure, Maz can get him for you. Go on into the kitchen.”

Luke left his horse with Poe and entered the kitchen to find Maz preparing dinner, and it smelled wonderful. “You back for supper?” the woman asked with a big grin.

“Major may not let me stay this time,” Luke replied. “I need to see him.”

Concern swept over the woman’s face. “I’ll go get him.”

A minute later the Major entered the kitchen. “Marshall, what can I do for you?” he asked and offered his hand.

“The wife of the man Hux killed over the rustled calf has told everyone that Kylo shot him in cold blood.”

The Major frowned. “Hux told you what happened.”

“Yes, and I believe him, but I’m asking you to rein in your boys. The farmers are afraid of them and making up all sorts of crazy stories. Let me handle the rustling by the farmers. Let the law handle it.”

Snoke eyed him a moment. “All right, we’ll give it a try.” He didn't think it would work, but for the sake of saying at least he gave it a chance he agreed to the marshal's plan.

“Thank-you.”

“But if it doesn’t work, we’ll go back to handling it ourselves.”

Luke frowned but accepted this brief reprieve. “All right. Guess I better go now.” Oddly enough he felt as if he actually accomplished something today.

“Have Maz fix you some food to take with you.”

Luke smiled. “I’d like that.”  
Getting a gunny sack of day old biscuits and other delicious treats, Luke headed out the door when Kylo, Hux and the two men rode up. Hux was mad. Kylo was quiet.

“The Major told me there might have been a fence cutting,” Luke said to Kylo after he dismounted and passed the reins of his stallion to one of the men.

“Yeah, and about ten head were driven off.” Kylo frowned. The fence had been cut at least two days ago. Hard to tell how many cows had been run off.

“Any ideas?”

“They were driven towards Hawthorne,” Kylo answered and pushed his hat back. Rey in a pretty blue dress was peering at him from the corner of the house. She had a little garden in back and was trying to grow tomatoes and other fresh vegetables.

“I’ll look into it,” Luke promised him.

“I hope so,” Kylo replied as she sashayed towards him. God, he loved her.

Luke gazed back at Rey and could see that the woman was clearly in love with Ren. If the gunslinger had any sense he’d get her out of here. Go somewhere no body knew of him.

After supper, alone in their room, Rey smiled seductively and slipped off her chemise. He gazed hopefully at her body. She was so beautiful and his cock had a mind of its own. "Are you up to it?" he asked as she crawled into bed beside him. 

"Oh yes," she purred and kissed his swollen mouth. "All I've thought about today was getting in bed with you tonight."

He wrapped his arms around her neck and pulled her on top of him. God, how he loved her. When she guided him inside of her, he thought 'home'. She was home to him. Sitting up, his cock buried deep inside of her, she rode him slowly at first and then faster. Anchoring his hands on her breasts he surrendered to the sweetness growing inside of him. Rey was love and life.


	7. Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winter is settling in the valley.

The short summer was the time to can berries and other fruits for the coming winter. A barrel of apples bought from a farmer outside of the valley would be dried for cold weather pies. For Rey and Maz getting ready for winter was around the clock. Rey had seen some edible wild berries awhile back when they were still green and Maz was convinced they were ready to go pick. Didn’t matter if they were sweet or not, fixed right and they would bring some much needed flavor to the wild game the men who were staying on through the winter would need.

Not everyone was staying through the winter. Some of the men had already ridden out before they got boxed in when the snow closed off the high passes. What steers could be sold were sold, and only the best momma cows were kept to winter over. The Army bought a lot of beef for the N’dins and the second year crop of geldings were being bought as quick as the Major could offer them for sale. Good mares, some well trained geldings and a couple of stallions, including Kylo’s big black would be fed over. Rey’s gelding was a hardy little mustang and would winter over on natural forage. If it looked like he was not doing well, they’d slip him some hay.

It was an idyllic time to be young and in love. One day, Kylo back from a ride out of the valley….business….found Rey and Maz making tallow candles. He sat his horse and watched them a moment before Maz turned to him and asked, “Admiring the view?”

“I was wondering if I might steal her for an hour or so?”

“Or so,” Maz teased him. Looking at the smiling girl, she said, “Go on.”

Kylo ran to get Rey’s horse and had him saddled in no time. He then helped her up, not that she needed any help, and led her into the mountains to a remote place where clear waterfall trickled into a rock lined pool, and it was large enough for two people to share.

“Is it safe?” she asked and stood on the pool’s edge and gazed into the clear water while he enthusiastically undressed.

“Absolutely,” he replied and dove in. Rising out of the water, he shuddered and laughed, “It IS cold.”

Rey undressed and eased into the water. It was cold but nice too as the day was quite warm. It took a moment for her to get used to it. She smiled when he glided through the water towards her with just his eyes above the water. A moment later he was rising up and towering over her. Another moment and he was kissing her.

She eased back a moment and laughed, “I don’t think we’ll be doing anything thing here.”

He gave her a funny look and replied, “Oh yea of little faith.” Picking her up, he carried her to the side of the pool and sat on a rocky ledge. This time his kiss deepened and his hands warmed on her breasts. She sat astride him, her pussy heating his cock, until it swelled hard enough to slip inside of her. They fucked slow and unhurried, her passion cresting before his, but the feel of her rippling around his cock ignited a hotter fire inside of him. Holding her hips, he fucked harder up into her until the tension in his body spilled over into her.

A broad smile creased his lean face as she grinned at him and planted a kiss on the tip of his nose. “We need to go,” she said. “It’s getting colder.”

“I’ll keep you warm,” he promised and helped her stand up. They both quickly washed off and dressed. On their way home Kylo killed a fat buck that was trying to slip away. He’d clean it once they got home and store the meat for winter.

 

Winter hit hard in the valley. Bitterly cold, Hux and the boys worked hard keeping the breeding stock fed and sheltered. Any of the old half wild cattle were left to themselves, but the European brood cattle had to be taken care of. 

Late in November Kylo found blood in the snow from a kill. Someone desperate for meat had killed one of Major Snoke’s cows. As it was a half wild one, he did not go after the shooter. A part of him thought the lives of people were more important than a long horned bossy cow. Still, he followed the trail to its destination, a small homestead four miles from town.

His presence sent the children, half starved and wormy, running into the cabin. The man came out with a shotgun in his hand. “You know I can kill you before you cock that thing,” Kylo warned him.

Refusing to show cowardice, the farmer spoke up, “ What is it you want?”

“You left a trail a blind man could follow,” Kylo answered easily and glanced at the opening cabin door. The man’s weathered wife, looking older than her actual years, came out. She was wearing a tattered coat with a blanket over it. Who in god’s name brought their families into the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on their back? 

“My yungin’s are hungry. You gonna shoot us over a scrawny cow?”

“Probably not,” Kylo replied with a heavy sigh. “But you need to make that cow last. If Hux finds out you are doing this, he’ll come after you.” Then against his better judgment he took off his buffalo coat and tossed it to the woman. “That’s warmer than the rags you’re wearing.”

Reining his horse around he rode back to the ranch and stopped to thaw out in the kitchen. Rey thought he was foolish for giving his heavy coat away, but she was also proud of him. She wanted to take them some canned food but the Major forbid it. Before the winter was over they were going to be hungry too. Rey doubted that but she knew better than to argue with him. He would not say anything to her, but he’d give Kylo an earful about getting his woman under control

Still a few weeks before Christmas, Rey was able to convince the Major to let her go to the families with children and share some sweet preserves with them. It was Christmas and the ranch had plenty. The smoke house was full of half beeves and venison and wild turkeys. Snoke thought it was a fool’s errand, but he reluctantly agreed to it. Kylo knew who the homesteaders were and would take her, Maz and Rose out on a clear day to the different farms. Poe and Finn rode with them. On the way back they would cut down a tree to decorate. None of the women had ever decorated a tree before, the Major was not into such foolishness, but Poe remembered the tree at the King Ranch and the piñatas that the kids would break and spill candy out for the ninos. 

The women had fun delivering ‘goodies’ to the homesteader women. One family that was barely holding one, got some extra quilts and a smoked turkey. One turkey was not going to drive the First Order into famine. And if it did, Kylo and the boys would hit the mountains and find wild game. Kylo always said if the wolves are eating well and not coming in to bother the cows, something was feeding them.

In the middle of all the good wishes, Kylo noticed a hide that did not belong to one of wild ones. The man named Caldron had killed a well-bred calf, one of the Major’s expensive imports. He didn’t say anything about it, but Poe spotted it too. Not good. Not good at all. 

If Hux found out, the farmer would be burned out with the Major’s approval. With Poe and Finn at his side, Kylo told the farmer, out of his wife and kids’ ear shots, that he had seen the calf hide. He had also told the man that the Major would be within rights to demand satisfaction. 

“You’d shoot me over a cow?” Caldron demanded.

Kylo got deadly serious for moment. “I am giving you a warning right now. The Major knows yah all are taking the longhorns and while he cares, he’s not going to do anything. Take his purebreds and he will act quickly and violently.”

The man did not say anything back to him. “We need to go get the tree,” Poe said with a smile on his face, hoping to break the tension between the two men. 

“Yeah, it’s getting late and I want to see this tree,” Finn added.

Gathering the women up, the little party headed back towards the ranch. Making a small detour, they found a tree that just begged to be cut down. Finn and Poe went to work on it with a cross saw. They had it tied in the back of the wagon in short order.

Christmas came with a fresh layer of snow on the ground. The Major and Hux saw it as just another day, but the ones in Maz’ warm kitchen exchanged little pretties with one another. Small trinkets were exchanged between the women. Poe had carved little figurines out of wood and had painted them. Rey and Rose got spotted horses while Maz got a bright blue bird. Finn got a howling coyote and Kylo got a buffalo, at least Poe said it was a buffalo. Kylo thought it was a wonderful buffalo.

Finn wrote everyone their own personal poem. The ones for Rose and Rey were flirty while the one to his grandmother was full of his love and respect. Maz said it was the best present ever.

Kylo was unused to Christmas presents, but he had found some pretty rocks and secured them to leather strips for the women. For the men he had made small rabbit skin medicine bags. Whatever they deemed sacred or special would go into the bag.

Molasses cookies and hot coffee completed the gift giving. Poe sang a song in Spanish that his mother had taught him long ago in Texas, and everyone agreed it was really pretty. 

Rey had saved her surprise for the last. She was pregnant. At least she thought she was pregnant. Yeah, she was…she thought.


	8. A crime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hux says he didn't kill Hanson. If not who did?

February came with ice and the wolves of hunger. They came out of the mountains and it became necessary to move the cows closer to the ranch. The hay that had been gathered all summer was almost gone, and that was being fed to the horses. Rey’s horse was not one of the blue bloods and had to survive on what he could paw out of the snow along with the mules and extra horses. Rey felt sorry for him and snuck him a mouthful of hay one morning.

Hux and two of his men were riding out to check on the cows north of the ranch and caught her. “It’s just a mouthful,” she explained quickly.

“You can take it out of the black stallion’s rations,” he replied and mounted up. Rey, a warm woolen shawl wrapped around her arms, stood back and watched the men ride out. Kylo was already gone an errand taking him to town. 

Being out in the cold with just enough of a wind blowing to make the scarves wrapped around their heads to protect their ears necessary did not leave Hux in much of a good mood. The expensive cows were beginning to calve and it was essential that he checked on them everyday if he could. He wanted to move them into the corrals but there wasn’t enough feed to keep them there. At least here they could forage.

Riding into the herd he spotted a dead calf on the ground. Frozen after being born, except something was wrong. There were entrails on the ground. His first thought had been wolf kill, but the wolves would have not carried off the cow and leave the entrails. Someone had killed a cow and gutted her, leaving the calf for dead. Rage flared in his brain. “We have to move them,” he decided and stood up. “Then we’ll find the man or men who did this.” 

Although ice covered the ground, Hux knew where he was going and rode towards the nearest homestead. 

 

Kylo sat in the sheriff’s office close to the pot-bellied stove while Luke poured them cups of hot coffee. “I asked the major to let me take care of this,” he said and handed Kylo one of the tin cups. 

“And he has been true to his word, but those longhorns were his, and now they’ve been killed off,” Kylo said and blew on the cup. “He wants payment for the cows.”

“And he’s entitled to it,” Luke agreed and turned his chair around to sit down. “I’ve appreciated his patience.”

“It’s coming to an end,” Kylo warned him. 

“Wolves,” Luke spoke up. “Wolves have come out of the mountains.”

“I’m aware of that,” Kylo replied, his own coat lined with wolf fur, “but wolves eat the whole cow and leave nothing behind.”

Luke was aware of that. So far the cold had kept First Order cowhands close to home, but in another month the lower passes would be opening and travel would be easier. “I heard a rumor,” he said curiously.

“What’s that?”

“Your wife is expecting?” Kylo smiled. So it was true. “You should get her out of there. Go someplace where no one knows you.”

“The world isn’t very forgiving of a half breed with a white woman,” Kylo reminded him. In the world of the mountain valley, people respected him because they were afraid of him. If he left the valley he would be just another dirty half-breed to the outside world. He couldn’t let people think Rey was a squaw. 

Luke dropped it. He got up and was about to pour them another cup of coffee when a man named Gustophsen rushed in. “Hanson’s place is on fire!” he shouted. 

Luke and Kylo ran outside and found several men waiting on the sheriff. Having seen Kylo’s big black stallion, they were not surprised to find him visiting with the sheriff. Luke’s horse was tied beside him. Together they mounted up and headed out of town ahead of the other horsemen.

A little less than forty five minutes from town they reached the burning farmhouse. Luke jumped off his horse and ran to the building. He couldn’t get inside the flaming house but he could smell burning coal oil. If anyone was inside, they were dead. Kylo dismounted but stayed back. There was a small shed where the animals were sheltered from the weather; he decided to have a look inside. He didn’t have to walk far, there were tracks in the nearly frozen much of men in heavy boots. First Order. He offered no input.

What few animals the homesteaders had, a half starved mule and horse were still there. One of the men from town slipped halters on them and led them out of the pen. 

“Could this be an accident?” one of the men asked.

One of the town’s people looked at Kylo and asked, “Ask him what he thinks?”

Luke knew this wasn’t an accident, but they were in no position to ride to the ranch and demand satisfaction. “Would the major allow this?” he asked Kylo.

“I can’t imagine him approving this,” Kylo said.

“Why are you asking him anything,” someone snapped back. “He works for Snoke.” 

Luke, before things turned uglier, mounted his horse and said, “Come on Kylo, let’s go talk to him. The rest of you go home. Once it’s cooled down, we’ll look for bodies.” Two men and an old woman were supposed to have been living here.

Kylo mounted his horse but kept his eye on the man who had questioned his honesty. Reining the black around, he and Luke continued on to the ranch where Rey was beginning to look for him.

She ran up to his horse and laid a hand on his knee. “What is going on?” she asked anxiously.

Kylo dismounted and took his wife into his arms. It was cold outside and he wanted her in the house. “Go inside, I’ll be along.” Looking at Luke, he said, “Follow her, I’ll put the horses in the barn.”

Luke followed Rey into the warm kitchen where a cup of hot coffee was waiting. Rose, who was helping Maz with dinner, went to tell the Major that Luke was here. She returned without saying anything and went back to making bread. Maz threw the girl a puzzled glance, but this time she did not ask anything. The Major and Hux were coming. Maz automatically poured the Major a cup of coffee. Rey got Kylo who was entering the kitchen one.

“It’s been awhile,” Snoke said and took a seat at the kitchen table. Hux got his own cup and held it out for Rey to fill. It was the polite thing for her to do.

“A homestead burned this morning,” Luke replied thoughtfully. “I saw the tracks of several horses. Did your men go to the Hanson’s place.”

Snoke never hesitated. “My foreman and some of his men followed the cow killer to his place. I’ve tolerated them killing the old longhorns, but I will not have them taking my brood stock. As for the fire, we don’t know anything about it.”

Hux, standing behind Snoke said, “There was no fire when we left.”

“It’s burned down,” Luke replied. “When it cools I’m going inside to look for bodies.” He gazed up at Hux. “Any chance I will find some?”

“Anything is possible,” Hux answered, “but I did not order anyone’s death.”

Luke didn’t know what to think. “What did you do?” he asked Hux.

“I didn’t see any sign of the dead cow, but I know he had taken her,” Hux replied. “Maybe someone else knew as well and came for the meat?”

It was crazy, but Hux had a point. If these people were desperate enough to kill a First Order beef, it is possible someone else would be desperate enough to try and take it. Or Hux was lying to cover his own ass.

First things first; was there anyone in the burned out ruins?

 

Luke stayed for supper before riding back to town. He did not see this as a conflict, he was supposed to be the law for everyone. But some people didn’t see it that way. A committee of towns folks met him at his office. “Sheriff, what are you going to do about them burning out the Hansons?” someone demanded angrily.

“The foreman said he didn’t do anything to them,” Luke answered. “I think he was telling the truth.”

“You gotta decide who you are for,” someone else spoke up. “They ain’t the law, and they ain’t payin’ you, unless there is something we need to know.”

Luke frowned. “You know, I think it’s possible someone else killed those folks, so I’m riding back out tomorrow to look into it. Any of you’re welcomed to come with me and hold an inquest.”

 

Rey didn’t say anything until bedtime, when she and Kylo were alone. Crawling under the blankets and snuggling against his side, she asked, “Did Hux kill those people?”

He encircled her shoulders with his arm and kissed the top of her head. “I don’t know, there were lots of hoof prints in the mud.” 

He caught his breath as her hand slowly slid down his body to grab his cock. She kissed his chest and played with his cock until it started filling in her hand. He whimpered when her teeth latched around a dark nipple. Power! So much power over this big bad gunman. Making him mew was exciting to her. Keeping the quilt on her back, she climbed over him and reached down to guide his cock into her pussy. It slipped in long and smooth, and when she sat up and gazed down at his feverish eyed, he smiled and licked his full lips. Rocking forward and back, she rode him like a wild stallion, her hands flat on his breast, while he toyed with her nipples.

Rey loved her husband, although it was a marriage in words only. She didn’t care.


	9. Everything's going to hell

Luke entered the burned out ruins of the homestead and found the charred remains of three people. There was no way of telling if the fire had killed them or gunshots, but they were lying at various places around the ruins which seemed a little odd to him if Hux had been the culprit. Was it possible that this was an accident? 

Going outside he found the ground covered in horse tracks. Impossible to determine if they belonged to cattlemen or farmers. Well, someone had to do something with the bodies, and it didn’t look like anyone was rushing to come bury the poor bastards. Noticing his horse looking back over his shoulder, he spotted Kylo and the two men from the kitchen riding up with shovels. 

“Surprised to see you,” he called to Kylo.

“Shouldn’t be,” Kylo said and dismounted. “They need burying and Po and Finn volunteered.”

“But not you?”

Kylo smiled. His hands were made for working a gun not a shovel. “I wanted to have a look around. If someone else did this, there ought to be tracks leaving the place in a direction opposite the ranch.”

“So you think Hux is innocent.”

“Hux is a bastard, but he’s not a liar,” Kylo said. “He was fairly certain that these people killed our beef. Did you see any sign of it? Or smell it?”

“No,” Luke said and looked back as Poe and Finn went to work digging a grave. There wasn’t much left so they were going to dump them in a single grave.

He and Kylo walked back into the burned out cabin. Nothing was left but a scorched pot belly stove and a warped coffee pot, half melted from the heat. “Hux wouldn’t kill anyone over nothing,” Kylo said and walked through the rubble to a burned out second room where the frame of a bed stood on three legs. “He said the men met him with rifles.”

Luke could see no sign of a beef carcass. Was it possible one of the neighbors found out about the beef and killed them over it? Hunger was really bad with some of the settlers, Hawthorne’s lone store running out of credit for anything more than dried beans and some flour. Two wagon pairs had come in from the east, the long way, to drop off needed supplies. Very few people had hard cash at hand, the Major being one of those few.

“I’m going visitin’,” Luke said and grabbed up his reins. Mounting the sorrel, he asked, “Feel like taking a ride?”

Finn and Poe stopped long enough to watch them ride away. Poe wanted to go with them. “Go,” Finn said. “I got this.”

“Are you sure?” Poe asked hopefully.

“Go.”

Poe grabbed his horse’s reins and swung on board. Finn smiled and shook his head. He needed to hurry up and get these bones covered so he could get back home.

 

The first homestead they came to from the Hanson’s place belonged to the Carl Newcastle, his brother, wife and two small kids. They were faring better than most of the settlers. Luke knew they were from Arkansas and had managed to get a crop in the ground during the short growing season. They had also managed to keep their milking cow alive during the winter. Where she had found a bull to mate with was anyone’s guess, but in the spring she’d be giving them fresh milk, butter and cream again.

The two brothers were also skilled hunters who had harvested some elk before it got cold. Unlike a lot of folks who went after the lean bulls, they had culled a couple of fat cows out of the herd that crossed the ridge crest. Luke would have sworn they had some N’din blood in them, but that was a quick way to start a fight. Hedda Newcastle was a tough as leather woman with fair hair and a hard disposition. 

Kylo and Poe hung back as Luke rode into the yard. “Hello in the house!” he called out. A minute later Carl and Burn Newcastle stepped out. With the sky beginning to clear overhead there was an increase in the temperature. 

“Sheriff,” Carl greeted and took note of Kylo and Poe. “What brings you out this way?”

“Did you know Hanson was killed yesterday and his place burned?”

Carl looked surprised. “Place burned?”

“Almost to the ground.”

“And you think we had something to do with it?” Burn asked suspiciously.

“Didn’t say that,” Luke replied easily. “I’m askin’ if you saw anything unusual.”

“No one came this way,” Carl spoke up nervously.

“That’s all I needed to know,” Luke said and reined his horse around. He couldn’t be one hundred percent sure, but he suspected he had talked to the men who had killed the Hansons. But why? If anyone could make a go of a homestead in the valley, it was the Newcastles.  
Kylo, staying back with Poe, noticed the woman in the doorway staring at them with her arms folded across her chest. Two youngins peered around her long skirt. There was a look about her that said she would book no nonsense. He wondered if she ever laughed or smiled. When Luke reined around and joined them, Kylo backed his horse from the men. Luke wasn’t afraid of them, but Kylo trusted none of them. 

Although there was no evidence proving the fire was intentionally set by the First Order Ranch, the townspeople and homesteaders believed it was so. A whisper campaign started saying that Luke was covering for them. That he and the half-breed gunfighter knew each other, that maybe Luke was even his father. Luke tried to ignore it, but there was another fire a month later after the killing of a month old First Order calf. This time Major Snoke went on the offensive. 

Riding into town ahead of his men, he stopped in the middle of the street and waited while Kylo fired several shots into the air to get their attention. Once he was satisfied, he spoke. “I’ve been tolerant of the homesteaders stealing from me to feed their families. In another day and age I would have shot them all myself, but those days are gone.” 

Luke standing outside his office listened with grave interest.

“Now I’m telling you once and for all, my men don’t murder people in the dark. That’s on you. If someone needs killing, my men doing it out in the open and they admit to it to me. I won’t tolerate a back shooter no more than I’ll tolerate another cow being slaughtered. The barn burner lives among you. Look there.”

Luke stepped into the street. “Major Snoke,” he called, “now that the pass has cleared, a circuit judge will be arriving in a week’s time. The people want an inquiry. We need you to be there to answer some questions.”

“Just tell me when. I have nothing to hide,” Snoke replied with a fierce lift of his chin.

“I will send word,” Luke promised him.

Snoke nodded sharply and then reined his horse around. “Just another reminder, the poaching of my cattle will stop now. Pass it on. My men have orders to do whatever is necessary to protect my stock.”

He paused a second longer and then spurred his horse into a gallop out of town. Luke could see this all coming to a head soon, although he believed Snoke when he said his men were not the fire starters. But then he had been around men like Snoke all his life, but the new people in the valley saw Snoke with the same eyes as his generation had once looked upon the N’dins. 

The circuit judge, an angry man riding a mule, arrived in Hawthorne on Saturday morning and was put up in the hotel at government expense, which meant the owner had to send the bill to the capital for payment. Luke was certain Billingsley would do just that. Judge White would hold court on Monday. Luke rode out to tell the Major that he needed to be there.

If anyone thought the Major wouldn’t show up with half his men, they were mistaken. Even Rey in a nice dress riding in a buggy was along for support and show. The Major made a big show of helping her out of the buggy and taking possession of her arm while her husband looked on. Since the only building large enough to have a court inquiry in was the saloon, that was what they entered. Kylo wasn’t going to give up his gun and did not go inside but stayed outside with a couple of the boys who were also armed.

Rey sat beside the Major and made herself comfortable in the hard bottomed chair. She was beginning to show and everything seemed unbearably hard. Bony butt she reasoned. Sitting there she knew people were looking at her, but the Major had insisted she come to town with him and sit beside him to show people he was not a bastard. 

The Major knew the law as well as the judge, but trying to reason with hysterical people was pointless. The Major just by virtue of his existence had to be the one causing the fires and all over some cows that starving people needed.

When the Major pointed out that not all of the settlers were starving, he was met with contempt. Hux who hated everyone didn’t help their case. He admitted to visiting the first victim but he insisted he left the man alive. And didn’t the First Order have a right to protect what is theirs? Rey understood his argument but she remembered when she was starving and was willing to do anything for something to eat.

Weren’t human lives more important than cows? 

“But I didn’t kill that man,” Hux growled back at them. “The son of a bitch was alive when I left.”

“So you say,” the judge replied. As this was just an inquiry and not a real trial, Hux was in no danger. Unless the judge decided Hux needed to be held over for trial.

Luke’s statement was met with ridicule. He believed Hux did not kill anyone. The First Order foreman was an unlikable man, but he was not a murderer. 

The inquiry ended for lunch. The judge was thinking that maybe there was enough reasonable doubt with Hux’s story to hold him over for a trial. Snoke and the First Order left down the moment things ended for lunch. He was not going to sit still wile his foreman was railroaded for a crime he did not commit. A brave soul saying they were running produced a shotgun and found himself staring down the barrel of Kylo Ren’s Colt. Luke got between the two men and got Kylo to put his gun up. The man with the shotgun had the good sense to not try anything stupid.

With everything escalating into madness. Luke wasn't sure he could keep everything from exploding.... soon.


	10. The Conclusion

Kylo’s thoughts were dark and savage. Trouble was coming, this he was certain of, but this time the boy who couldn’t protect his mother had a wife and child on the way. He could not let them die. Not while life burned in his body. There was only one thing he could do, get them out of the valley.

He took his concerns to the Major who listened as he said his piece. Giving it some thought, the Major had to admit his gunman was right, the townspeople and homesteaders were working themselves up to come for them. They were certain Hux had burned out the homesteaders and Kylo probably helped him.

It was with hard resolve that the Major agreed with Kylo. The First Order was coming to an end. “I’ll not be run off my ranch,” the Major said and stood up from the chair made from the horns of a hundred steers. “Who is staying with me?”

 

“I’ll stay if you let my wife and the other women go,” Kylo replied. 

Snoke knew it would be suicidal but Kylo owed him everything, including his wife. “Tell them to pack and be ready to ride out the moment we know that they are coming,”

Kylo went back to the kitchen to inform the women that if it became certain the town was coming to get them, they were to leave. He wanted Finn and Poe to go with them as protection. Rey couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“I won’t leave you!” she snapped angrily.

“This time you must listen to me,” Kylo said firmly but gently. “I don’t want you hear when they come. Poe and Finn will look after you.”

“What good is that? I’ll be penniless,” Rey protested. “I’d be better off dead beside you.”

The words stung him. “Take my horse. You can sell him or use him to breed some good mares. Poe, promise me you’ll look after her.”

“You have my word,” Poe promised the man. 

Kylo nodded his head and turned away. The tragic look in Rey’s eyes was almost too much for him to bear. But it had to be done. He couldn’t abandon the Major but he couldn’t have her trapped with him when they came.

The next day there was an uneasy quiet. Some of the cowboys who were not of a mind to fight, had left early in the morning. Those who stayed behind had nowhere else to go or were just mad enough to make a show of it. Hell, they might even win. Sodbusters and storekeepers were no match for hard trained men.

Rey had slept alone most of the previous night. Kylo had been on watch and had not come to bed until the early hours. Exhausted he had kissed her once and had passed out. Rey later discovered that he had readied a string of horses for her to take with her, the stallion and three good mares. Poe said he’d make sure she either set up a small farm for herself or sold the horses for what they were worth. Kylo had given him all the money he had on him to give to her once they were safely away.

Rey hated it. She was not going to leave him behind. “You listen to me, Poe Dameron, the moment it becomes obvious that they are coming, you saddle his horse. I’ll make him come with us.” 

 

Luke watched the folks in Hawthorne get worked up all day long. He tried to reason with them but Hux refusing to stay over for trial had them scared. And Newcastle was leading the homesteaders who were terrified that their property would be next. They had to confront the First Order together if they were all going to survive. The days when big ranches told people what to do or think was over.

The more the day wore on, the more they got their courage up with liquor. No matter how many times Luke warned them that people were going to get killed, it didn’t matter. They weren’t thinking straight, and the judge who was supposed to bring law into the valley was only interested in getting Hux to surrender or captured. Luke also noticed that the most vocal were the Newcastles, the ones who faired better than their neighbors.

Luke thought how they reminded him of wolves waiting for the old wolf to die so they could take over. Was it possible that they had done the dirty deeds? Would anyone even listen to him? 

Getting his horse, he rode as quickly as he could to First Order. Surely someone had to be reasonably. Just hand Hux over and Luke would guarantee his safety until the trial was over. This incredulous promise was met with contempt. Let the squatters come, hot lead was waiting for them. Luke was relieved to see that at least the women were being allowed to leave. Finn and Poe were going with them. Finn started readying the wagon to leave, hitching up a pair of mules and loading it with supplies. Poe made sure his anvil and tools were also loaded and tied down. 

Rey stayed quiet and watched everything from the porch, her shawl pulled tightly around her. Luke didn’t think for one minute she was taking this calmly. He could see it in her eyes, she was thinking hard. Carefully approaching her, he asked, “ Are you going to be all right?”

She gave him a hard look and then said, “I’m not leaving my husband behind.”

He stepped on the porch and sat in the straight-backed chair beside her. “I don’t see how we can make him leave.”

“Then I’m staying too.”

“You’ll get yourself killed.”

“I don’t care. I can use a gun and fight as good as a man.”

“That may be so, but you’ve got your baby to think about.”

“What good will he be without a father or me a husband? I’m not leaving.”

Luke stared at her and realized for a second time in his life he was going to have to save Kylo Ren. “We won’t leave him behind,” he said thoughtfully. 

Rey turned to him, surprise and hope lighting her eyes. “You are going with us?”

“I may be the only one who can pull this off. Here’s what I want you to do….”

 

Darkness was coming and everyone was certain now that they had to go. Kylo made Rey sit in the wagon with Maz and Finn. He insisted on it. The three good mares were tied behind it, and he told her to sell one of them if the cash ran out. Wondering where his stallion was, he called for Poe who led it out of the barn saddled.

“I suppose riding him would be easier than leading him,” Kylo reasoned aloud. “Make sure if you have to sell him, you get a good price, OK?” He petted the black’s soft nose. “You be good for momma now….”

Rey turned to him and snapped, “ You get on him and come with us!”

“I can’t, and I told you why?”

Rey snapped angrily at him. “If you don’t come with us, I will never tell anyone I ever knew you!”

“That would be better,” he said, the pain swelling in his breast. He stepped up to her, but she was furious with him. He didn’t want her to leave hating him. Didn’t she know he was doing this because he loved her? That he wanted her safe?

He didn’t pay any attention to Luke moving up behind him. Rey with tears in her eyes relented and leaned over to kiss him good-bye. To finally see things his way. This was just before Luke brought the butt of his gun across the back of Kylo’s head as hard as he could. The tall gunman crumbled.

“Tie him on his horse,” Luke said as Finn and Poe hurried to do his bidding.

Getting Kylo into his saddle required major teamwork. Then they tied his feet to the stirrups and his hands to the saddle horn. He was still slumped over but at least he wouldn’t fall off. Luke handed Rey his hat. Grabbing up the stallions reins, Luke led the horse and people towards the southern pass. Rey glanced back at the ranch and saw that the Major and Hux were watching them. Rey never thought she would ever see this day, but she raised her hand to the Major. He nodded while Hux turned away.

They hit the mountain trail just as night descended. There was a full moon and Luke was not going to stop until they were on the other side of the mountain. 

“Oh my god, it’s burning!” Rose cried and drew up the mule she was riding. Behind them the First Order burned in the darkness. Kylo, still groggy, glanced back but his eyes found his wife sitting in the wagon staring at him.

“Cut me loose,” he told Luke.

“I don’t think your wife wants me,” Luke said and resumed the climb.

“Rey, have him cut me loose,” Kylo spoke up loudly.

“Not if you are going back there,” she answered defiantly.

“I won’t. Not now,” he said and found a smile for her.

“You promise? You ain’t lying?”

“I ain’t lying.”

 

Epilogue:

Amarillo, Texas on a clear spring day is the time for high school rodeos. The boy carrying the bucking saddle is tall and handsome in an uncommon way. His twin sister is riding her barrel racer beside him chatting about a girl she knew who also raced the barrels.

“You need to stop being afraid to turn that mare loose,” the boy said with knowledge. 

“I’m not afraid,” his sister retorted, “I just thought I felt a weakness in Missy’s shoulder.”

“Uh huh,” the boy replied with a smile. They were at the chutes and he needed to go ready for his ride.

The announcer grinned and said into his microphone, “This portion of the Amarillo All High School Rodeo is brought to you by Hector Dameron, whose family has been a fixture in this community for over a hundred years. If you need insurance for your house, car or boat, contact Hector. He’ll make sure you are treated right and fairly. And si habla Espinol.”

The boy reading the little bay pinto for a ride smiled. Once he had his rig secured, he climbed on the back of the chute and waited his turn. The boy ahead of him was bucked off out of the gate. Now it was his turn,

“Bad draw for that cowboy,” the announcer said. “But give Johnny a round of applause because that’s all the boy is going to take home today. Next up, Kyle Ren. His family has been ranching to the north of Amarillo for over a hundred years. His family played prominently in the creation fo the American Quarterhorse. Kyle is riding a tough little mare named Harlequin.”

The gate handler opened the chute and Kyle gigged the mare on her first jump. After that it was a steady rhythm of forward and backward, gigging her shoulder with every jump. His blunt spurs annoyed her but no damage was done. At the buzzer she actually stopped bucking and took off running as the pick up horse drew long side them. Kyle reached over and essentially fell off the mare. She squealed once and took a sharp turn out of the arena.

“I think that’s our champion,” the announcer cried. “Give Kyle a hand for a good ride.”

Epilogue Part II

The beautiful young Black woman smiled at the camera. The Supernatural and Paranormal crew had come to New Orleans to do a program on a bed and breakfast that had been in the Kanata family for well over a hundred years. The young woman led the men into the parlor where a portrait of her great great grandmother hung.

“My grandmother led an adventuresome life,” the young woman explained. “We believe she’s still looking after her family.” She led them into another sitting room where an antique rocking chair faced a window overlooking a garden. “They say the famous lawman Luke Skywalker passed away sitting in that chair. Some people claim they have seen an old white man sitting there.”

“Incredible!” Scott Germaine said back at the camera. “tonight when we do our investigation, Marshall Skywalker will be one of the people we will try to contact.”


End file.
